What do Sidney Poitier, Meryl Streep, and Utah Jazz point guard Mike Conley Jr. all have in common?
They’re all Oscar winners now.
Conley and Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant on Sunday won an Academy Award for “Two Distant Strangers,” this year’s Oscar winner for Best Live-Action Short Film. The two NBA stars served as executive producers on the film, which examines the deaths of Black Americans during encounters with police.
Conley was approached by a friend about investing in the project last year.
“He let me in on the project and said they’re close but they’re not going to be able to get it off the ground and running if they didn’t get a couple more people involved,” Conley said.