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LeBron James has been busy in recent years expanding his portfolio outside of basketball, particularly by venturing into the entertainment space with his production company SpringHill Company. SpringHill’s latest project, a Netflix basketball film titled Rez Ball, has landed James and the company in some hot water due to allegations of plagiarism.
On Thursday, November 14, Rob Grabow — a screenwriter who directed the 2022 film The Year of the Dog — filed a lawsuit against LeBron James, his production company, and Netflix in a California federal court alleging that they plagiarized his screenplay.
Rez Ball, directed by Sydney Freeland, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8 and was released on Netflix on September 27.
“Grabow states he had written a script for The Gift of the Game — and it was all about a Native American high schooler and his efforts to lead his basketball team to a state title. He claims the work was ‘a powerful basketball film that deals with issues of community, race relations, and poverty’ — but he says after he shared it with people close to Netflix, James and the hooper’s SpringHill Company ripped off the idea and repackaged it for a 2024 flick titled, Rez Ball.” [via TMZ]
“There are numerous substantially and strikingly similar concrete and expressive elements in the two works’ plot, theme, dialogue, mood, setting, pace, characters and sequence of events,” Grabow claims in the lawsuit.
LeBron James’ production company, SpringHill Company, was founded by LeBron and his longtime friend and manager Maverick Carter in 2020. The company has produced documentaries such as What’s My Name: Muhammad Ali and Black Ice, feature films such as Space Jam: A New Legacy and Hustle (and Rez Ball), and TV series such as Self Made, The Playbook, and The Crossover.