The life story of Nigerian-Greek NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo is an improbable one. So too is the story of ESPN basketball commentator, author and entrepreneur Jay Williams, a two-time college player of the year whose pro career was cut short by a devastating, near-fatal motorcycle accident.
Now, the two have partnered to create Improbable Media, whose big vision is to produce not only films and series around the tastes and experiences of Antetokounmpo and Williams, but to be a “white label” service provider for the many up-and-coming athletes, entertainers and other performers who want to have more control over their own stories.
“How do we become the Motown of production services,” Williams told me in a recent interview. “Not everyone can carry their own shingle. That’s what the new model is, under Improbable (directly) or not.”
The production and brand consulting company is backed by Verance Capital and GPS Investment partners. Its first project, at least under the Improbable Media name, was Antetokounmpo’s own story, Giannis: The Marvelous Journey, which debuted worldwide on Amazon Prime in February.
Former Red Bull Media House and Bunim/Murray executive Jonathan Stern is CEO of Improbable, which has two divisions: Improbable Productions and Nuance, which provides strategy and solutions. The company has already created cross-platform branded content for Nike, WhatsApp, Breitling and other brands.
The Marvelous Journey is a feature-length documentary, co-produced with Words + Pictures. It tracks the story of the two-time NBA MVP, whose parents immigrated from Nigeria to Athens, hoping for a better life for their children. One of their sons born there turned out to be one of the planet’s very best basketball players.
“Through every turn of my journey, I realize how unlikely it was that I ended up where I am today,” Antetokounmpo said in a release. “In everything that we do at Improbable Media, I want to inspire people from all backgrounds and walks of life on the power in making the improbable, probable in their lives.”
Giannis’ is an inspiring story, but creating your own production company is, at this point, practically table stakes for superstar athletes such as LeBron James and Serena Williams. The co-founders are thinking bigger.
Williams spent seven years watching what James and close adviser Maverick Carter have done with James’ production company, and similarly watched NBA star Kevin Durant and his partners work build out an ambitious production and branding operation, he said. Armed with that background, he came to Giannis to urge a similar omnimedia approach to Giannis own profile, and to build the infrastructure to help others too.
“It’s about understanding how (an athlete’s personal) brand aligns with their identity,” Williams said. “It’s not only imperative but also about who you are. Working with your endorsements, thinking through what those economics are, creation, production and ideation for these companies was critical.”
The key to Williams’ vision goes well beyond projects such as The Marvelous Journey, trying to take advantage of the shift in media opportunities and growing savvy now common among up-and-coming athletes who realize they need to be more than just an on-court presence with a couple of endorsements.
“Young talent have the flexibility to allow their brand to remain relevant while being true to their values,” Williams said. “Every athlete and entertainer should be thinking about their business. Everybody is getting media training, but nobody knows how to create an arc around their story.”
It’s also about helping college conferences and programs figure out how to navigate the complicated new world of Name, Image and Likeness deals across college sports. The complications, and opportunities, will only accelerate with what Williams said is an “inevitable” next shift looming over college sports, when scholarship players are officially designated as school employees, with the right to unionize.
“When I travel around and talk to schools about collectives and NIL …a lot of schools are learning to operationalize their athletic departments,” Williams said. “We can help with that in a really big way.”
The rise in interest in women’s sports such as college basketball, gymnastics and softball, and the expanding number of smaller professional sports leagues will further drive opportunities for athletes there to carve out a bigger, more sophisticated brand presence, though they may not be able to justify a standalone production company of their own.
That’s where Improbable hopes to come in, providing the back-end services and advice that can support a less-prominent athlete or entertainer, Williams said. Part of that is helping newcomers navigate very complex brand, endorsement and media opportunities.
“Not all money is good money,” Williams said. “Viewers and audiences now more than ever know when something’s just an ad or is something that’s actually meaningful to you. What are the brands you mostly use, and how do you like to use them?”
That said, Improbable Media is also doing plenty of projects for its own purposes. One feature under development is a heist comedy set in Greece and directed by Greek-American filmmaker Christopher Andre Marks, with principal photography set to begin soon. Other production partners include mini-mogul David Ellison’s Skydance Sports, Lightbox, and Mission Control Media.
Williams is nothing if not supremely confident, with a thoroughgoing knowledge of college basketball. But ask him who’ll win March Madness, the men’s college basketball tournament starting next week, and he has a simple response: “I have no idea. This year, more than ever, I can’t give you a perspective until I see the bracket.”
UConn is “the best team in the country,” Williams said, and Purdue has man mountain Zach Edey, the 7-foot-4-inch reigning national player of the year, but has also lost on the road to a string of unranked teams, never a good sign for tournament success.
Meanwhile, the game has been transformed by looser transfer rules, allowing stars from smaller programs to transfer to a major where they can thrive on a bigger stage.
Williams pointed to a recent game he announced between the universities of Tennessee and Alabama, both highly ranked teams featuring a bevy of scorers who started their careers at smaller programs before transferring to the SEC.
The changes in transfer rules give players who weren’t highly recruited in high school a second chance at a big program’s visibility and resources. But it also is changing the dynamics of the sport, even in March Madness, where Cinderella teams routinely break out for a round or several on the back of a standout player or two.
Picking winners may be no easier with the women’s tournament, Williams said. South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley has presided over an undefeated regular season with another powerhouse team, while Stanford’s Trish Van Devere became the winningest college coach of all time, and Iowa sharpshooter Caitlin Clark became college’s all-time greatest scorer.