It’s always good to remember those individuals who have played an instrumental role in your journey to success. Enter UNINTERRUPTED Live: The Day Ones series.
On Tuesday, UNINTERRUPTED held their first-ever live storytelling event in a partnership with Courvoisier Cognac. The event was held in LA and focused on five sports figures who told stories of how they came up, and more specifically, who put them on.
Hosted by Jemele Hill, storytellers Taylor Rooks, Jason Collins, Al Harrington, and Sue Bird took the stage to share first-person memories and experiences in front of a live audience. More importantly, the event provided a platform for these athletes and sports experts to control their narrative and express their point of view.
No too often are sports fans able to tap into the hearts of the athletes they love. It’s deeper than the person we admire on the TV every night and through platforms like UNINTERRUPTED viewers can have a deeper, more authentic understanding of the athletes they praise.
UNINTERRUPTED was started by LeBron James and Maverick Carter in 2014, as a way to broaden the areas in which athletes can talk. Day Ones marks the first time the athlete empowerment brand held a live, storytelling event.
Still, the event proved that athletes should have a platform to speak about issues outside of sports. Through the “Day Ones” event people around the world get to hear the story of how some of their most beloved athletes came up, and who helped them become who they are today.
“Athletes are natural storytellers and performers, and until now, our exposure to them as performers has been somewhat limited to what we see on the field or court,” said Maverick Carter, CEO of UNINTERRUPTED.
“Together with Courvoisier, we’re empowering these incredibly talented performers to be More Than An Athlete and own their stories in a wholly unique way, giving the audience a window into the lives and talents of some of the biggest athletes in the world,” Carter continued
Jemele Hill is a widely respected sports journalist who writes for The Atlantic and previously worked for nearly 12 years at ESPN. She has never been quiet about her political and moral stances, which makes her bold and resonant voice all the more powerful.
Taylor Rooks is a sports journalist and broadcaster who appears on Bleacher Report and Turner Sports. On her show Take it There, Rooks makes more than an effort to show her viewers the human beneath the superstar athlete.
Retired NBA player, Jason Collins played in the league for 13 seasons. In 2013, in an issue of Sports Illustrated, Collins came out as gay, making him the first active male athlete from one of the four major North American professional sports teams to publicly do so.
Al Harrington also made an appearance alongside Collins. The 16 season vet, since retiring, has become an entrepreneur in the cannabis industry. He is living proof that there’s more to sports.
Finally, Sue Bird is a professional WNBA player, who has won three WNBA championships, four Olympic gold medals, two NCAA Championships, and four FIBA World Cups.
Bird is also in a relationship with USWNT player Megan Rapinoe, and recently wrote an impassioned story in The Player’s Tribune entitled, “So The President F*ucking Hates My Girlfriend.”
What do all of these sports journalists and athletes have in common? They recognize their platform to express themselves and speak about issues greater than sports.
With a live event such as this one, answers are as raw and authentic as possible. With UNINTERRUPTED, the easy-going and honest manner in which the company does business only furthers this truth.