‘Court of Gold’ Director on Making Kevin Durant Cry, Getting Kicked Out of Serbia’s Locker Room and Interviewing 7’3” Victor Wembanyama on a Stool

variety.com:

Jordan Moreau Not many people can say they’ve been kicked out of a locker room at the Olympics or have made NBA superstar Kevin Durant cry, but director Jake Rogal got an all-access pass to the Paris Summer Olympic Games for Netflix‘s basketball documentary “Court of Gold.” Rogal, who produced the Michael Jordan documentary “The Last Dance,” returned to the basketball court but took a much more international lens for the Olympics action.

He traded Jordan for current basketball superstars like LeBron James, Steph Curry and Durant, plus foreign talents including Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama.

Across six episodes, “Court of Gold” follows basketball teams from the U.S., France, Serbia and Canada as they chased Olympic glory in Paris last summer. “What Jake did a masterful job of is the diplomacy and the management of so many moving parts, with not only the entities on our side of the fence and the production companies involved and the IOC, but also dealing with the four teams, all of their personalities and the four crews who had to follow them,” said Jason Hehir, who directed “The Last Dance” and produced “Court of Gold” through Words + Pictures. “In many ways, this was a more difficult, complicated project than ‘The Last Dance,’ with a lot less time to put everything together.

What Jake accomplished here as a true director, with a capital D, is astonishing.” Even though viewers know the Team USA won its fifth straight gold medal, the stakes and excitement are high throughout “Court of Gold.” The U.S.