Basketball great Kevin Durant of The Oklahoma City Thunder captured the hearts of the nation when he accepted the 2014 NBA Most Valuable Player Award with his emotional speech crediting all of his success to his mother, Wanda, naming her "the real MVP." Durant's moving story of a mother's love, tenacity and sacrifice unfolds on Saturday, May 7 at 8pm ET/PT in THE REAL MVP: THE WANDA DURANT STORY, just in time for Mother's Day.
Executive produced by Academy Award nominee, Golden Globe, Grammy, SAG and Emmy Award winner Queen Latifah and her Flavor Unit team, the inspiring true story of The Real MVP begins with Wanda, a single mom of two by the time she was 21, working tirelessly to make ends meet and put a roof over the heads of her young sons. With the support of her mother and her best friend, Wanda focused all her energy on keeping her boys out of trouble and on the basketball court, selflessly putting aside her own dreams and desires to make sure their goals could be achieved. Her hard work paid off as her son Tony earned basketball scholarships and graduated from college while Kevin pursued his dream of playing in the NBA.
Cassandra Freeman (Inside Man, Single Ladies) stars as Wanda, Tracie Thoms (Cold Case, Rent) as her best friend and confidante, and Pauletta Washington (Wilma) portrays her mother Barbara. Daniel Bellomy and Nic Few star as the adult Kevin and Tony respectively.
The Real MVP: The Wanda Durant Story is produced by A+E Studios. Executive producers from Flavor Unit are Queen Latifah, Shakim Compere and Shelby Stone. Wanda Pratt also executive produces with Gina Ford and Brynee Baylor as co-executive producers. The film is directed by Nelson George (Life Support, A Ballerina's Tale) and written by Yolonda Lawrence (Witches of East End) and Ligiah Villalobos (Ed).
ABOUT A+E STUDIOS A+E Studios is the studio unit of the award-winning global media company A+ENetworks, LLC. A+E Studios creates, produces and distributes high quality scripted programming across all networks and platforms in the A+E Networks portfolio, including A&E(R) Network, Lifetime(R), History(R),LMN(R), FYI(TM), H2(R) and A&E IndieFilms(R). A+E Studios' slate of programming consists of scripted series, event series and movies, including the upcoming event miniseries Roots,
UNREAL for Lifetime and SIX, Knightfall and
HOUDINI for HISTORY.
ABOUT LIFETIME Lifetime is a premier entertainment destination for women dedicated to offering the highest quality original programming spanning scripted series, non-fiction series and movies. The critically acclaimed UnREAL, Devious Maids, Project Runway, Dance Moms, Bring It!,
THE RAP GAME and Little Women franchises anchor the network's programming, in addition to its over 25 original movies annually that continue to define the TV movie genre. In 2015, Lifetime launched Broad Focus, a major global initiative dedicated to supporting and hiring female directors, writers and producers to make its content which totals over 450 original hours. Lifetime Television(R), LMN(R), Lifetime Real Women(R) and Lifetime Digital(TM) are part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, LLC, a subsidiary of A+E Networks. A+E Networks is a joint venture of the Disney-ABC Television Group and Hearst Corporation.
