This is how he wins. Adam Sandler stars as down-on-his-luck basketball scout Stanley Sugerman, who discovers a talented player with a spotty past while abroad in Hustle, produced by Sandler and LeBron James.
Queen Latifah, Robert Duvall, and Minnesota Timberwolves forward Juancho Hernangomez also feature. “I don't think it's been a dream of his [to act]; I just think he had some time to himself... and he made a tape,” Sandler says of Hernangomez.
Sandler’s passion for the sport has shown through in plenty of his films, but he connected to Hustle in other ways as well: “I liked the feeling of it, the father-son relationship that comes out of it, and I just connected to a lot of stuff in it.”
Directed by Jeremiah Zagar (We the Animals), Hustle is packed with NBA cameos and sees Sandler return to drama: "I knew this movie was a different feel for me, but it's kind of a combination of stuff I've done in the past and a newer version of who I am."
"It's very much a Rocky story," Sandler says. "And I'm not Mickey in it — there's never gonna be another Mickey — but I like being that kind of guy, getting to talk to a young man and getting him fired up." Hustle is streaming now on Netflix.