Oscar-winner Kobe Bryant takes a jab at Fox News

Retired basketball superstar Kobe Bryant and animator Glen Keane have won the Academy Award for best animated short feature for “Dear Basketball.”

The six-minute film won over “Garden Party,” “Lou,” “Negative Space,” and “Revolting Rhymes.”

On stage, Keane addressed the crowd saying, “[‘Dear Basketball’] is a message for all of us, whatever form your dream may take, it’s through passion and perseverance that the impossible is possible.”

He then passed the mic to Bryant who made a jab at Fox News host Laura Ingraham stating, “I don’t know if it’s possible, I mean, as basketball players, we’re really supposed to shut up and dribble. I’m glad we do a little bit more than that.” A reference to the time Ingraham said Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James should just “shut up and dribble.”

“Dear Basketball” is based on a letter Bryant wrote in the Players’ Tribune in 2015, in which he announced his retirement from basketball, saying that his body could no longer withstand the grind of the season. Keane, whose animation credits include “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin,” and “Beauty and the Beast,” directed and used hand-drawn animation to capture Bryant.

Keane’s son, Max, served as production designer on “Dear Basketball,” and initiated its storyboarding process, including the complex images of Bryant as a boy rolling his dad’s socks into a makeshift basketball. “We filmed Kobe showing us how he did it,” Glen Keane said.

The Keanes and producer Gennie Rim teamed with Bryant to watch videos of his games with the Los Angeles Lakers frame by frame.

“I can remember what it felt like in certain situations,” Bryant said. “From years of studying game films, you condition yourself to remember little details.”

Bryant played his entire 20-year professional career with the Lakers and won five championships before retiring in 2016.

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