All-Star cast explains basketball’s influence on their lives in new doc with local edge
“Ball of Confusion” was a catchy hit single for The Temptations 50 years ago, and today it perfectly fits the title and theme of a one-hour documentary about basketball’s history created by actor and director Cylk Cozart and marketer and promoter Keith Zimmerman.
There’s a local edge to the production. Zimmerman is a lifelong Kansas City resident, and no story of basketball’s evolution can be told without highlighting the game’s inventor, James Naimsith, who spent his final 40 years at the University of Kansas, and one of the sports’ great influencers, John McLendon, the pioneering Black coach who attended KU.
The film leans on basketball’s role in breaking barriers and is subtitled: “The History of Basketball and its impact for Social Change.”
Exclusion is part of the game’s history, but basketball also has served as a blending force.
If you got game, you’re in.
That idea and other testimonies are told by an impressive guest list. Over the years, Zimmerman collected video of basketball icons for other projects. They’re now part of this one and include the late John Wooden, Pat Summitt and Marcus Haynes. Contributions also come from Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, Rick Barry and Steve Nash.
More than 30 voices are part of the film.
“We have 40 hours of footage and it’s a one-hour documentary,” Zimmerman said. “We could produce more than one.”
Not coincidentally, the production is stirring international film festival interest — and already won an award at a film festival in Berlin — at a time when social justice has been a front-page issue throughout the summer. That started with the death of George Floyd under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis in May and has continued through recent protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after the shooting by police of Jacob Blake.
“It was always a story worth telling, but with everything going on the timing couldn’t be better,” Zimmerman said.
Cozart and Zimmerman are seeking ways for the film to find a wider audience. Cozart is an actor/writer/director with many credits and a terrific jump shot. He was a small-college basketball standout at King College in Bristol, Tennessee, which made him perhaps the best hoops figure on the set of “White Men Can’t Jump,” in which he showcased his own basketball skills,
Credited hoops figure, anyway — nine-time NBA All-Star Gary Payton makes an uncredited appearance in the film.
“Basketball has meant so much to me throughout my life,” Cozart said. “This film has allowed me to give back to the game.”
Zimmerman, with an executive producer credit on Ball of Confusion, maintained a friendship with James Naismith’s grandson, Ian, and helped him find a buyer for basketball’s original handwritten rules, which now reside at KU. He’s also been working on finding a home for the basketball that was used in the 1936 Olympic gold medal game.
Cozart and Zimmerman love basketball’s history, especially the lesser told narratives that made a difference in people’s lives. Having those stories told by a collection of hall of famers and other luminaries is the production’s great value.
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM.