I’m a sucker for nostalgia.
As a connoisseur of all things music, film, and fashion from yesteryear, I love it when influential contributors from our past receive their flowers in the present day and are reintroduced to modern audiences. Verzuz is a perfect example of this, treating Black music’s foremothers and fathers with appreciation and reverence instead of dismissing them as extraneous relics. Artists like Earth, Wind & Fire and Patti LaBelle helped paved the way for almost every brilliant artist who followed, and should be lauded as such.
Looking to follow in those footsteps is the NBA, which has always done a spectacular job incorporating its legends into its modern presentation and programming, but is taking things up a notch in celebration of its 75th anniversary.
On Thursday, the league premiered its “NBA Lane” campaign, which is set in a fictional neighborhood where the NBA’s biggest stars—from the past, present, and future—just so happen to call home.
From a press release provided to The Root:
In the three-minute film, Michael B. Jordan serves as the neighborhood “Hoopbus” driver, taking a group of children on a tour of the NBA neighborhood that houses 75 years of basketball culture. As the bus rolls through the streets of the community, the passengers encounter these prolific figures in everyday settings. From former rivals Magic Johnson and Larry Bird becoming friendly next-door neighbors; LeBron James tending to his garden; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar teaching Dirk Nowitzki the art of the hook shot; to Zion Williamson breaking a backboard at the street court, it is just another day in the neighborhood. The tour honors both the NBA legends who have laid the foundation of the league and the current players who are shaping its future.
This is a really dope way for the NBA to honor 75 years worth of players who have quite literally written the history of the game. The nods to Lil’ Penny and Kobe Bryant, in particular, brought a smile to my face.
Check out NBA Lane above and let us know what you think in the comments.