Mr. Chibbs

A Sports Legend Searches for a Meaningful Future

@robert - Thank you so much for watching the film and for your thoughtful and touching comments. I thought the same thing when we were filming Kenny with Bobby Hurley. A lot of love and passion went into making this. I am still in touch with Kenny and will send along your encouraging words. At one point he was thinking about writing a book too! Again, thank you. It means the world to us to get this kind complimentary feedback! It was truly an honor to share Kenny's story.

There were no retakes or do overs with with Kenny, that’s how he rolled and that’s how I roll too. My goal as a director, producer and playwright has always been about establishing authenticity while delving deeply into every story I am exploring, in an effort to better understand our world and my place in it. When I was asked to hop on board with Mr. Chibbs; Kenny requested that the producer’s fly him to New York, so that we could meet and he could see that we were “not a bunch of clowns.” I decided we should do some exploratory shooting and picked Kenny up from JFK with a car full of filmmaker friends and equpment. From the moment we started shooting, we all knew we had something special. Kenny and I connected on many levels: I am a lifelong New Yorker; my brother played college ball; during the season, the hum of basketball has always been on in the background in my home. I certainly knew about Kenny’s career, but when we met, I became passionate about telling his story. I immediately realized that Kenny was in the midst of a full blown mid-life crisis (I was at the tail end of mine) and I wanted to capture this journey by utilizing an observational/direct cinema approach, while incorporating archival footage from his amazing career as memories that connect us to the story we are telling in the present. This was not going to be just a highlight reel.

Kenny was also a great partner in the process of making Mr. Chibbs. As a point guard, he was a natural forward thinker which translated to natural producer; always visualizing our next move. We discussed the people we would interview and places we would go. I knew I wanted Kenny included in all the interviews we did, and as filming move forward, I realized that a “Christmas Carol” theme was evolving. As Kenny revisited people and places from his past, the experience evoked strong memories, inciting him to reflect on his life - past and present; his motivation to get his mother out of poverty, the natural talent he was gifted with, the amazing mentors who nourished this talent, the sexual abuse he silently suffered, the alcohol abuse, the women, money, kids he loved and neglected, wives, the DUI, the regret from not giving his all in the NBA. These were not only testaments to a story as universal as the American dream, but, I have never seen or met someone who was so willing to be as raw and open about their lives in an effort to give back to a society that gave so much to him. At the same time I began to witness how this was personally helping him to move forward in life. The film, became his therapy, and as he met people and places from his past, he began to understand, heal and learn more about who the man he was going to be for the rest of his life.

There is a little bit of Kenny in all of us which is why we can all relate to his story.