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LeBron James, Drake & Future Sued For $10M Over ‘Black Ice’ Hockey Film Rights

NBA Superstar LeBron James and famous rappers Drake and Future are reportedly being sued by former National Basketball Players Association executive director Billy Hunter.

The lawsuit wants $10 million in damages for allegedly stealing intellectual property rights to ‘Black Ice’,a movie  about the old, segregated hockey league for black players in Canada.

Per New York Post:

“While the defendants LeBron James, Drake and Maverick Carter [LeBron’s business partner] 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,” says the suit filed by Hunter’s attorney, Larry Hutcher.

In the lawsuit, Hunter accuses defendants who include four-time NBA champion and MVP James and “Nice for What” singer and Canadian Drake and their entertainment companies of cutting a deal behind his back with the authors of the critically acclaimed book that the documentary is based on — “Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895 to 1925.

The complaint alleges that when Hunter confronted the authors after hearing of the separate “Black Ice” film deal with James and Drake, the Fostys “speciously claimed” that the “competing venture” did not violate his “exclusive worldwide license” or film rights because the “documentary” was different and did not violate the agreement.

“A documentary is still a ‘motion picture’ and an ‘audiovisual adaptation’ and
any claim to the contrary is absurd and made in bad faith,” Hutcher said in the Hunter suit.”