‘The Greatest’ Star Jaalen Best Talks Muhamad Ali, Commanders & More w/ Rich

Jaalen Best had to audition for Lonnie Ali, Muhammad Ali's wife, and she declined to see him box. Standing near a ring at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, someone suggested he hop in and show her his moves. "She looked at me and she said, 'No, that wouldn't be fair,'" Best told Rich. "And that's when I knew."

He took it as a challenge. Best now plays Cassius Clay and Muhammad Ali in The Greatest, an eight-episode series streaming exclusively on Prime Video on November 4. Rich called it the first authorized scripted series about the life of Muhammad Ali. It runs from the 1960 Olympics in Rome to the 1964 title fight with Sonny Liston.

## Earning the role

Best said the series covers everything from receiving the gold medal to throwing it away, and he called walking in Ali's footsteps through that moment "so important to me." Michael Ealy plays Malcolm X, and Best said Ealy didn't want to meet him until their first scene together. Watching the chemistry grow from there, after years of looking up to Ealy, was "a fun process."

The vetting went through Lonnie Ali and executive producer Michael B. Jordan. With Lonnie, Best said, it was early in the process. He could do the voice a little and wowed her with it, sometimes reciting little poems. He wasn't into the boxing yet. "I was full on in the imitation world."

Then came the line about the ring. "It was humbling," Best said. "I've always been known to prove people wrong."

As for Jordan, Best said, "I still call him MBJ." Jordan tells him to call him big bro. "Somebody I looked up to for all of my life to now be in a position where they're like a mentor to me, a big brother, it's a crazy, crazy transition in life."

## The walk-on

Proving people wrong is an old habit. Best walked onto the men's basketball team at East Carolina University without being recruited. He set up a tripod in the gym, recorded himself, and kept emailing the coach until the coach wrote back, "please stop emailing me."

Best replied by thanking him for taking the time to respond. That got him a tryout. He lasted about a month, then gave it up because he started acting. His basketball alter ego? "I have to say Kobe Bryant."

Rich noted the confidence has to come out of his pores to play Ali. Best, without missing a beat, started rhyming.

## Becoming Ali at 28

Best is 28, so Rich asked how someone who never saw Ali in real time gets there. The answer was YouTube and repetition. Best studied interviews so closely he could mute the sound and still recite the rhymes, then drilled the mannerisms, how Ali pointed and what he did with his face, "until it was second nature."

His boxing trainer in Los Angeles assigned homework: clips of Ali in the ring and shadowboxing, to be broken down detail by detail, then drilled in the gym the next day. If a left jab wasn't fluid or quick enough, they did it again "until it was perfect in his eye."

The footwork was the hardest part. "For someone like him who was a heavyweight that can move the way that he did and be so fluid and graceful in the ring, it's like listening to jazz," Best said. So he trained to jazz, blues and Motown.

Did he have a stunt double for the feet? "No, they said they couldn't find anybody that looked that good as me."

## Sticking with the Commanders

Rich then turned to Best's other passion, the Washington Commanders, who Best said are "facing a little adversity." Rich offered a boxing fix for their game-clock woes: a bell to let them know it's fourth down, or that they're out of timeouts, like the clap at the 10-second mark of a round.

"It's been a tough couple years," Best said. "But I'm sticking with them through and through. I love them."

He grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, attending Patrick Henry while his family went to T.C. Williams, then moved to Clinton, North Carolina. He's a Duke fan in college sports, and a Commanders and Wizards fan otherwise. "You got to be with your teams in the dirt," he said, "so you can experience them in their highs when they reach the skies and start flying." Rich: "You only know one speed."

Rich pointed out Washington didn't quit on Monday night and nearly handed the Niners their first loss of the year. Best loves Jayden Daniels and sees a young roster "coming together." On the Wizards, with Anthony Davis and Trae Young, Best thinks a surprise is possible, and Rich said the city would go nuts if the Wizards were really good. TJ, already in his Cowboys gear, got a quick dismissal: "Ain't nothing too good about that."

## The poems

Asked for his favorite Ali-ism, Best picked the poems. Ali was the greatest in his sport, an activist, and still went home to memorize and write poetry. "This man was a jack-of-all-trades."

Then he delivered one for Liston: "I've been perfecting my punches, which is as smooth as a piston. I'll take time out of my day to feel sorry for Liston." He asked for one more and went into a second, finishing with, "He might be great, but he will fall in round eight. Always remember, I am the greatest." And then the kicker: "They asked me what my weight is. I said, '198, good knockout weight.'"

## The cast

Giovanni Ribisi plays Angelo Dundee, and Omari Hardwick plays Best's father. Hardwick told Best the whole thing felt like therapy. With Ribisi, Best said, the two met in the parking lot when they wrapped and broke down crying, "cuz that's how much the experience was so special and so important to both of us."

Best spells his first name with two A's, as Rich made sure to point out. Expect to hear it more.