Kevin Durant’s
Basketball County: In the Water
Prince George’s County, Maryland produces more NBA players per capita than most U.S. States.
Why?
This is the question we set out to answer in our edit of Kevin Durant’s feature documentary, now on Showtime and Hulu.
The producer and director of Basketball County: In the Water approached Green Buzz to help organize over 90 interviews and months of incredible footage into a comprehensive and engaging story about the deep history of Prince George’s County’s relationship with basketball. So, the editors and I sat down and mapped out the keystones of basketball’s roots and its intersection with history in this small county in the DC Metro area. From the crack wars of the ‘80s and their impact on the primarily Black community of PG County, to the rise of AAU youth basketball and today’s biggest NBA stars, we aimed to showcase how, for this county, basketball is not just a sport, but a culture and platform for Black excellence, opportunity and growth.
This project came with a challenge: create a feature-length rough cut within two months. From the beginning, I worked side by side with our editors, animator and the Shifted Industries team to map out our story arc and plan our logistics to ensure we delivered a full rough cut of the entire feature within timeline. Throughout the edit, I was in the edit bay with the post team, reviewing segments and keeping in close communication with the director and producer so as to deliver to Thirty Five Ventures as promised — and we did.
As a born-and-raised Marylander who went to school in College Park, this story lay close to my heart and I was honored to work with such a talented and dedicated team during our time on this project.
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