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Stayin' Hollywood

Two UCLA scrubs produce a hit comedy

IT'S NOT OFTEN that a cable series gets renewed for Season 2 before it even premieres, but such was the case last fall for Legends of Chamberlain Heights, a half-hour animated series on Comedy Central (June 18, 11:30 p.m. ET) that chronicles the inappropriate exploits of Grover, Milk and Jamal, benchwarmers on a high school basketball team. The show was created and is voiced by former UCLA hoopers Josiah Johnson (top, left) and Quinn Hawking, both 35, who spoke about their career path.

Where did these three characters come from?

JJ: Every game we would just be hanging out, talking s---, looking at cheerleaders, trying to occupy ourselves for two or three hours.

Why does Legends connect with people?

QH: Very few people live life as the star player. Our characters don't even play, but in their own minds they're legends.

What can viewers expect in Season 2?

JJ: Being funny is the priority, but we also deal with social issues like gentrification, racial appropriation. We have an episode where the guys get thrown in jail, so they get a mentor: O.J. Simpson.

You two just missed playing with Russell Westbrook. Was there any hint he was going to be so good?

QH: No, I just remember [UCLA center] Lorenzo Mata came home from their first practice, and he was like, Dude, we've got this new guy, Russell, he's unbelievable.

JJ: [By 2008] we were living in a house in Westwood. Russell and [Kevin] Love would hang out and play Foosball. A couple months later they're the fourth and fifth picks in the draft. We were like, You guys are about to make $100 million, bruh, and you don't even realize it.

Do your former coaches watch?

QH: We're still close with coach [Steve] Lavin. He came to our premiere party. I said to him, "Thank God I wasn't good at basketball."

THEY SAID IT

"HE TOLD ME BUFFALO, AND I THOUGHT HE MEANT BUFFALO [WILD WINGS] GRILL."

Hadi Abdollahian

Uber driver, who took Bills cornerback Shareece Wright from Chicago to western New York, an eight-hour trip, after Wright's flight was delayed.

SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE

Brett Favre admitted that more than a season into his NFL career, he still didn't know what a nickel defense was.