If Adam McKay were an NBA player he would be Kawhi Leonard. Much like Leonard does everything on a basketball court including rebound, defend, shoot both the mid-range and three point shot and take it to the hole and throw down ferocious dunks, McKay has done it all in his career. He was the head writer at Saturday Night Live at 28, is an internet mogul by virtue of his co-founding Funny or Die, has written and directed Anchorman and Step Brothers and recently won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for writing the critically lauded The Big Short, a film he also directed. One element of McKay’s persona that people are often unaware of is his unrelenting passion for the game of basketball. A passion that he serviced by executive producing the 30 for 30 Short, A.C. Green: Iron Virgin. Narrated by Will Ferrell, the short is about the travails Green encountered while maintaining his virginity throughout his 16 years in the NBA. The short is available to watch now on ESPN.com. We had the chance to discuss A.C. Green: Iron Virgin with McKay and also touched on his basketball awakening, his love of early Public Enemy, as well as some of the current players that he likes to watch on NBA League Pass. How did you come up with the idea for A.C. Green: Iron Virgin? I went to a Lakers game with Todd Schulman who is one of the producers on the short. He’s a massive basketball junkie and we were just talking hoops and 30 for 30 and he said: “How has there not been one done on A.C. Green?” We then started talking about the “Showtime” era for the Lakers which was one of the great debauched dynasties in sports. You had A.C. Green dropped into the middle of this, who was not only a hardcore religious guy, but, most importantly, a virgin, which is just an amazing story. Then we started researching and the story just got better and better. I remember A.C. Green in college, I remember when he was drafted and I had heard about the virgin component, but to get to hear those stories was really fun. Are you a Lakers fan? No, I actually grew up a Celtics fan. Then, when I moved to New York, I became a Knicks fan. Although, I do like the Clippers too. I’m just a hoops junkie. I’ll watch any two teams play on NBA League Pass. I’ll watch the Bucks play the Grizzlies on a Tuesday night. I just love hoops. I’m not a big college guy, but the NBA I love, and I really like high school hoops too.

When you were working at Saturday Night Live did you get a chance to go to Madison Square Garden to see some of those great Knicks teams featuring Latrell Sprewell and Patrick Ewing? That’s kind of where I got hooked. Lorne Michaels had great seats. He was a couple of rows back from Woody Allen which weren’t quite at center court but close. I don’t think there’s any better place to watch an NBA game. It’s mostly about the basketball. They have a few of the showy things at intermissions but not nearly as many as the other teams and I love that vibe. MSG deserves the title the Mecca of basketball. There’s no question. It is the capital of basketball. Did you play organized basketball growing up? I played on my high school team but I got into it very late. I really started getting into basketball around 1980-1981 during that silver age when the NBA really started breaking with Bird and Magic Johnson. Once I caught the bug, that was it. I was a big baseball fan before that but baseball quickly faded into the rearview mirror. That was also when hip-hop was really starting to break. I was living outside of Philly at the time, where I grew up. We were getting all the new hip-hop records and the 76ers had all those amazing teams with Dr. J, Andrew Toney and eventually Charles Barkley. I had a group of about five or six friends who would tape games on VHS and replay sections over and over watching certain moves and play in pick up games all the time. What’s the best element of your game? I’m 48 so there are almost two phases to that answer. When I was in my teens, 20s and early 30s I had a really nice jumpshot as well as a good handle. Now, my game is a bit broken down but I still have a good handle, can pass and have a few low post moves. I can drop a baby hook. The J’s not as good as it was but basically, I can hang in a game without embarrassing myself. However, when I was playing when I was younger, basketball was basically my musical revolution. In fact, when Public Enemy came out they were like my Bob Dylan. Can you elaborate on that? When Public Enemy came out they just blew me away. I was at Fresh Fest in 1986 with a bunch of buddies my freshman year in college. The very first Public Enemy single “Rebel Without a Pause” had come out and they were on the bill but were still just breaking. LL Cool J and Stetsasonic played but when Public Enemy came on the crowd bum rushed the stage. We were all just amazed. It was like nothing we’d ever heard. So, we used to get every single that came out. We used to go to Cosmo D’s record store that was just outside of Philly and he would have every new fresh record. Public Enemy along with Eric B. and Rakim, when those guys came out I just felt everything was just turned up like three levels.