Meal Ticket Directors Reveal Favorite Interview Moments
EXCLUSIVE: 'Meal Ticket' Directors Carlton Sabb & Corey Colvin Talk Paul Pierce Breaking Michael Jordan's McDonald
The McDonald’s All-American basketball game is considered a pivotal first step toward young athletes’ professional basketball dreams. Meal Ticket, a new documentary, shines a light on the iconic basketball game that dates back to 1977, which was the brainchild of legendary coaches John Wooden and Morgan Wootten, while breaking down its ongoing importance.
The documentary from first-time directors Carlton Sabb and Corey Colvin focuses on the McDonald’s All-American game, which puts basketball legends past and present, like Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Paul Pierce, Patrick Ewing, Candace Parker, A’ja Wilson, and future stars like Flau’jae Johnson, on the biggest stage and in the radar of basketball fans and scouts.
jeen yuhs Directors Coodie & Chike Helped Carlton Sabb & Corey Calvin Land Meal Ticket
CassiusLife’s Men’s Lifestyle and Pop Culture writer Bernard “Beanz” Smalls spoke with Colvin and Sabb. Colvin revealed that it was while working on the Kanye West documentary, jeen yuhs, that they would get their opportunity to direct their first feature-length project with some help from Coodie & Chike.
“Well, I think we were blessed with the opportunity. It was actually an idea that came to us. Carlton and I were doing some work. We were creating some marketing and editorial content to support jeen yuhs, the Kanye West documentary,” Colvin begins. “And while doing that, we got a chance to just really get cool, get close with the directors of that, Coodie and Chike. And they got a chance to really understand and know us and what we were doing in our careers.”
“We were creating so many commercials and branded content at the time for people. And they just said, ‘What are you guys’ dreams?’ And they knew that we both aspired to be able to direct a feature-length film one day. And they said that’s going to happen. And shortly after, maybe a few weeks after, they’re riding high and doing their thing with Genius, Carlton got a call from Chike, and it was like, ‘Hey, we got an opportunity for you guys that you might want to take, and it’ll be great. And we’re going to vouch for you guys. We’re going to EP it. We’re going to make sure it comes out successful.'”
Colvin continues, “And before we knew it, we were on the phone with Roc Nation. We were on the phone with McDonald’s. And we were being able to be positioned to be the first people to ever be trusted with telling the history and the story of the McDonald’s All American Game.”
Carlton Sabb Says He and Colvin Were Born To Make Meal Ticket
Colvin’s directing partner also chimed in, saying it was a “dream come true” to work on Meal Ticket and that the duo was born to bring it to fruition.
“It’s a dream come true for us as well. We kept hearing that a lot in the interviews too,” Sabb begins. “We was doing the McDonald’s. We could relate. We’re like, this is all a dream for all of us. But we felt, when the idea came to us of telling the story, that we were born to tell it. Everything we’ve done in our lives separately, coming together, just made a lot of sense.”
He continued, “Being sports fanatics, our integrity in our storytelling style, should I say, that we try to fight for and keep, I think, was great for this project. With a lot of big brands being involved in it, it needed it because we understood the pressure of telling something as monumental as the McDonald’s Game, what it means to sports fans, basketball fans, the culture, the different cities in America, the hoopers from small towns. We knew this is what they want to see.”
Did Paul Pierce Break Michael Jordan’s McDonald’s All-American Game Scoring Record?
With them taking on the job to make Meal Ticket, that also means they got access to some fantastic archive footage and legendary stories from the McDonald’s All-American games.
The documentary features firsthand accounts from players, past and present who had the privilege to participate in the basketball game.
We asked the two directors if there was an interview with a player that took them by surprise after hearing their story, and Sabb pointed to none other than Paul Pierce.
Pierce is no stranger to sharing fantastic and hilarious stories, so it shouldn’t come as a shock that, early in his budding career, he had a legendary moment.
The Boston Celtics superstar participated in the 1995 McDonald’s All-American game, which also featured names like his future teammate Kevin Garnett, Vince Carter, Stephon Marbury, and Antawn Jamison.
Pierce, who never lacked in confidence, came off the bench in that game, but wound up putting up one of the greatest McDonald’s All-American game performances in the history of the high school All-Star game.
To this day, Pierce believes he broke Michael Jordan’s McDonald’s All-American game scoring record of 30 points. But there was a catch: Pierce’s West team jerseys were stolen, and Pierce had to wear one of his teammates’ jerseys, so he and others believe his points were credited to his teammate instead of him, denying him the record.
“So we knew that the ’95 class was iconic. We knew that before filming, before we even had the opportunity to tell the story. And so we were just excited to talk to anybody ’95, because that’s everybody to go-to, like that’s the class,” Sabb begins.
“But then Paul Pierce came into our set, and we was getting ready to interview him, and he came through the door almost like a movie. He kicked through the door type, like, ‘Hey, have y’all watched the tape? Y’all watched the tape about the McDonald’s Game? I broke Michael Jordan’s record.’ We were just like, ‘Whoa. Oh, hold on, brother.’ He’s like, ‘We about to set the record straight now.'”
He continues, “So that was just so cool because he… we just had to just press record. He was ready. He was ready to tell that story. And it unlocked something that was very beautiful, where when we got into post and everything, we were like, ‘All right, man, let’s see, did he break it?’
“Very complex story, man. Jerseys was stolen that year, players are wearing the same jersey, so then the scorekeepers getting confused. Paul Pierce comes off the bench and drops 28.
“But at the same token, Jonathan Bender did, regardless. And that’s like ’99, he did it officially. But I would say for me, that was one for sure where we was like, ’95, we can’t wait to talk to Paul Pierce.'”
Fab Five 2.0? It Almost Happened
For Colvin, his “Oh Snap” moment also involved that 1995 McDonald’s All-American class, and Pierce, but it was a story from Chauncey Billups who revealed that he, Paul Pierce, Stephon Marbury, Robert “Tractor” Traylor, and Kevin Garnett wanted to do Fab Five 2.0 at Michigan.
Unfortunately, Kevin Garnett failed to get a qualifying score on the SAT or the ACT, so he couldn’t play college basketball, and that’s when he decided to make the jump from high school to the NBA.
“I’m really leaning towards the untold story that we discovered when talking to Chauncey Billups, when he told us that there was talks that year of redoing the Fab Five,” said Colvin.
“So it’s like you have that class with Jalen, Chris Webber, and Jim where they’re just like, “We’re going to go to Michigan…” And Jawan, shout out to Chicago. But it’s like, ‘The four of us, we’re going to go to Michigan, we’re going to change the game, we’re going to play together, selfless basketball.'”
He continued, “But then to find out that there was talks of recreating that with Chauncey Billups and Stephon Marbury, that’s just one of those stories where I’m like, ‘Man, that’s cool.’ We got a chance to tap into the basketball world and put stuff out there that people haven’t heard before.”
That would have been absolutely NUTS if it had come to fruition.
Meal Ticket is currently streaming on Prime Video.
You can watch the rest of the interview above.
EXCLUSIVE: 'Meal Ticket' Directors Carlton Sabb & Corey Colvin Talk Paul Pierce Breaking Michael Jordan's McDonald was originally published on cassiuslife.com
