Writer and director Rob Grabow is suing LeBron James, along with his production company, for allegedly stealing one of his scripts. According to TMZ Sports, Grabow claims James, The SpringHill Company and Netflix used his script to make the 2024 movie “Rez Ball.”
Grabow, who directed the 2023 flick “The Year of the Dog,” claims he wrote a script for a movie titled “The Gift of the Game,” which was about a Native American teenager leading his basketball team to a state championship. In his suit, filed in California federal court, Grabow says Netflix and James’ production company used it to make “Rez Ball” after he pitched it to people associated with the streaming giant.
“Rez Ball” is about a Native American basketball team in New Mexico fighting for a state title after losing its star player. That screenplay was adapted from the book “Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation,” but Grabow alleged it was actually closer to his original script.
“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 wrote in the suit, per TMZ.
James and The SpringHill Company have yet to comment on the lawsuit publicly.
When he’s not setting records on the basketball court, the Los Angeles Lakers star has gotten progressively more involved in television and film production over the years. Recently, James has appeared in movies like “House Party” and “Space Jam: A New Legacy” while serving as a producer on “Hustle,” a basketball movie starring Adam Sandler. Although the 39-year-old James did recently indicate that his retirement from the NBA is on the horizon.