Danny's Dog Wins
December, 15, 2011 – In October, Pacers forward Danny Granger was at his offseason home in California playing the current flavor-of-the-month, NBA 2K12. Danny is a gamer. He plays teammates. He plays online. He plays the computer. Being a very competitive guy, he usually wins.
Until Bentley.
Danny’s English Bulldog, Bentley, loves playing video games with Danny. Or at least he loves getting in the way when Danny is playing. Bentley’s continual interruptions gave Danny the idea: What if we played against each other?
Danny took the idea to Jenna Mannos, President of Lineage Interactive, Danny’s digital marketing agency. She thought it would be a great online video for his web site, DannyGranger.com, so she and Sherwin Shilati, the Creative Director at Lineage, began brainstorming ideas.
“After Danny told us the story about Bentley, the video concept came together quickly,” said Jenna. “Danny loves gaming and clearly loves his dog.”
The video was filmed in late October at Danny’s offseason home. The house was the perfect setting for Bentley because he was right at home. He just needed a little peanut butter to lick the video game controller.
“There was a little ‘movie magic’ involved,” said Jenna.
After some production time, the video was debuted on his web site. Though it started as a funny story about his dog, the message from the video was clear: Danny appreciates the fans.
“We realized what the fans were going through (during the lockout),” said Danny after a training camp practice this week. “The fans were the ones that were suffering.”
Fans and the media have responded positively.
“If you like couch-potato sports, you’ll appreciate this. Even if you don’t, it’s fun to watch. And even if you don’t get what the narrator is saying, it’s still entertaining,” reviewed Maria Goodavage on her Dogster.com blog.
After some on-screen success, will we see Danny continue a career with acting?
“I’m going to stick with hoops.”