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‘And the Oscar goes to…’: Former Ohio State hoops star wins Academy Award

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

A former Ohio State basketball star and current NBA guard is officially an Oscar winner.

Utah Jazz guard Mike Conley and Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant received an Academy Award for best live-action short, titled Two Distant Strangers. The two basketball stars both served as executive producers for the short.

Two Distant Strangers is a short film that “tells the story of a Black man, played by rapper and actor Joey Bada$$, who gets stuck in a time loop reliving a deadly run-in with a police officer,” according to the Columbus Dispatch. Conley and Durant worked with numerous other producers on the film.

The short film is currently streaming on Netflix.

Conley spent one season at Ohio State, playing for the Buckeyes during the 2006-07 season. He averaged 11.3 points and 6.1 assists per game and helped lead the team to a B1G regular season title, a conference tournament championship and a runner-up finish in the NCAA Tournament.

In the 2007 NBA Draft, Conley was selected No. 4 overall by the Memphis Grizzlies. He played with franchise until the end of the 2018-19 season. He joined the Jazz during the 2019-20 season.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB