Tom Brady's Shadow Lion to chart Dubai Basketball's title run
Tom Brady's Shadow Lion is making Yalla, Dubai: From Startup to Championship, a documentary that follows Dubai Basketball from its launch in 2023 to an ABA League title in its second full season, as reported by Deadline. Shadow Lion is the company founded by Brady, the former NFL quarterback. The project tracks a start-up club all the way to a championship.
The club was set up by Chairman Abdulla Saeed Juma Al Naboodah and General Manager Dejan Kamenjašević. The film follows their work building the organisation from scratch. It runs from early planning and recruitment through to competing for trophies.
On the court, the story peaks in June with a 3-1 finals win over Partizan, the Serbian club, according to Deadline. The ABA League, the regional competition the team plays in, confirmed Dubai as 2025/26 champions in only their second season in the contest, as noted by ABA Liga. The club said the Game 4 clincher finished 83-81 in Dubai's favour, in what it called a historic first for the UAE, on its Dubai Basketball site.
The production centres on a large archive. The team is working with roughly 40 terabytes of older material alongside newly filmed footage from Dubai, Slovenia and beyond. That store covers matches, travel and life away from the arena.
The interview list mixes founders, coaches and players. It includes Al Naboodah and Kamenjašević, former head coach Aleksander Sekulić and current head coach Xavi Pascual. It also features captain Klemen Prepelič, NBA veteran Dāvis Bertāns and global ambassador Tristan Thompson.
Sami Khan directs, with a credit on Starting 5, the basketball series, to his name. Executive producers are Khan, Gilad Haas, Jeff Fine, Lior Haas, David Zabinsky and Philip Byron. Graham McKay and Dan Levy serve as co-executive producers, the supporting rank to that senior overseeing credit, while Gilad Haas is co-founder of Shadow Lion alongside Brady.
What makes this stand out is pace. Few new clubs win a league in year two. For fans, this means a close look at how Dubai did it.
