LeBron, Drake sued over hockey documentary 'Black Ice'
A multi-million dollar lawsuit has been filed against Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James and rapper Drake over the rights to a documentary they helped produce called "Black Ice."
The pair is being sued by Billy Hunter, the former head of the National Basketball Players Association, who is seeking a share of the profits from the film along with $10 million in damages, according to Carl Campanile and Priscilla DeGregory of the New York Post. Rapper Future and James' business partner Maverick Carter are also named in the lawsuit.
Based on the 2004 book "Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925," the documentary "Black Ice" presents a history of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes that was founded in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1895. It's slated to premiere on Sept. 10 at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Hunter alleges in his lawsuit that he holds the exclusive legal rights to produce any film about the Colored Hockey League.
"While the defendants LeBron James, Drake, and Maverick Carter are internationally known and renowned in their respective fields of basketball and music, it does not afford them the right to steal another's intellectual property," the lawsuit states.
In the lawsuit, Hunter accuses James, Drake, and their companies of going behind his back to sign a deal with the authors of the "Black Ice" book, George and Darril Fosty. Hunter alleges that he paid the authors a total of $265,000 to secure movie rights for the story of the all-Black hockey league.
Hunter served as executive director of the NBPA from 1996-2013.