SBJ Media: Mark Messier is all in on another Game 7

Prime Video’s upcoming five-part anthology series “Game 7” will debut Oct. 22, executive produced by NHL legend Mark Messier and actor Danny DeVito. The series, which is also produced by Words + Pictures’ Connor Schell (co-creator of ESPN’s “30 for 30” and producer of “The Last Dance”), highlights some of the most iconic Game 7s in sports history.

The five episodes focus on the 2003 Red Sox-Yankees ALCS, the 1987 Oilers-Flyers Stanley Cup Final, the 2006 Mavericks-Spurs NBA Western Conference Finals, 2016 Cubs-Indians World Series and -- of course -- the 1994 Rangers-Canucks Stanley Cup Final. Each entry tells stories from a perspective of the athletes who have played such games.

Messier has never been an executive producer on a series before, and he and partner Isaac Chera spent two-and-a-half years developing "Game 7," securing trademarks and IP property from around the world. “It was a shock to all of us,” said Messier. “We couldn’t believe that one of the leagues didn’t own [the rights] to Game 7.”

Messier, alongside Chera, DeVito and entertainment exec Mat Vlasic, launched also the lifestyle and performance platform dubbed Game 7 last fall, developing content series, podcasts and other ventures. “We realized that we’re onto something [and wanted to build] an amazing, aspirational brand around the great moments of Game 7 and all the teaching that went along with it,” said Messier. “The first thing we needed to think about, through the guidance of [Vlasic], was to build a community around it, and the best way we could think of was to share the iconic moments that Game 7s offered through years of history.”

Messier said that more than 100 years of Game 7 footage exists, and probably another 100 years of future content with which to work.

The group approached every major streaming company for possible distribution and eventually went with Prime Video. Messier said Game 7 felt comfortable with Amazon due to the direction the company is moving in around sports. “They have put an incredible amount of resources behind this,” said Messier. “They believed in the project from Day 1. They believed in its meaning behind the series, how impactful it will be for so many people.”

A greater message

The final episode focuses on Messier’s own Game 7 as captain of the Rangers, whose 1994 Stanley Cup win just celebrated its 30-year anniversary.

Fifteen of the 22 team members joined Messier in a rented movie theater with their friends and family to watch the series, which Messier described as “incredibly emotional.”

“Coming back and seeing and watching and getting the feel from something that we did 30 years ago, and how important and impactful it was, not only to the team and the organization and ourselves, but to so many people around the country and world that lived it,” said Messier. “We all just sat there for five minutes after, and not much was said, because it was so incredible.”

An NBA request to seal its digital agreement between the league and Warner Bros. Discovery -- a key document critical to the NBA’s claim that WBD cannot match Amazon’s $1.93B streaming-only offer  -- was denied by the N.Y. Supreme Court, pending the league filing a new motion to redact or seal particularly sensitive portions of the contract.

The NBA, with WBD’s blessing, had filed a motion in late August to seal the contract, which is a "Digital Rights Agreement" with Bleacher Report that governs Max’s ability to stream TNT broadcasts of league games. The NBA had brought the contract to the attention of the court because it is a separate agreement -- different than Turner’s media rights deal from 2014 -- that does not contain matching rights. Therefore, according to the league’s attorneys, WBD should under no circumstances be able to match Amazon’s digital package.

The NBA, in its August filing , had asked the court to seal the agreement because it contained trade secrets, proprietary business information and competitively sensitive information. But Judge Joel Cohen of the N.Y. Supreme Court ruled against the league, writing:

"Generalized assertions of confidentiality do not establish a compelling justification for the complete sealing that is proposed. While portions of the Digital Rights Agreement may include protectable confidential business information, Defendants have not made any attempt to isolate the specific portions of those documents that genuinely require redaction under the rigorous standards described above. Indeed, certain relevant portions of the Digital Rights Agreement are included in Defendants’ publicly filed memorandum of law (NYSCEF 40), thus indicating that there are portions of the agreement that do not require sealing."

Cohen wrote that the NBA has 21 days to ask for specific areas of redaction and will decide again at that time. In the interim, the judge has yet to respond to a league request to have the case dismissed at the early pleading stage.

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