ESPN senior writer Pablo S. Torre wrote one of the featured stories in ESPN The Magazine’s new Entertainment Issue. His “TrueHoop Presents” piece LeBron: The Sequel highlights how NBA superstar LeBron James is planning his second act as a global entertainment icon. It’s fitting that Torre has a piece related to the entertainment industry considering he will be laser-focused on the 2017 Academy Awards this Sunday (7 p.m. ET, ABC), where two of his friends are up for Oscars.
At Harvard University, Torre was a college classmate of director Damien Chazzelle, whose “La La Land” tied an Oscars record with 14 nominations this year, including Best Picture and Best Director. Torre is also friends with Ezra Edelman, director of ESPN’s critically-acclaimed “O.J.: Made in American,” nominated for Best Documentary.
“I’ll actually be in Los Angeles this weekend, where I’ll be rooting for Damien and Ezra from another friend’s house and desperately plotting how to crash parties afterward,” Torre said. “I was paid in beer to be an extra in Damien’s first movie, ‘Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench’, which he made when we were seniors in college. And no one is more deserving of an Academy Award than Ezra, who made one of the great films – in any genre – of all time. I hope the telecast turns both of them into inspirational memes.”
