It All Started with an Orange Basketball

"It All Started with an Orange Basketball" is the third episode of the Disney+ animated series, The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder. It premiered on March 2, 2022 on Disney+ and aired on January 14, 2023 on Disney Channel.
==Synopsis==
An overzealous Oscar bets big that his AAU basketball team can beat Wizard Kelly's. He forces Penny onto his team, but her heart isn't in it because she'd rather spend time with her crush.
==Plot==
After a successful basketball match, Oscar wagers a bet with Wizard Kelly to live like him for a week in order to prove he can be success. However, Michael, who is his best player for his basketball team, the Proud Snackers, slips on a puddle of water that he spilled, hurting his knee. His worries only heighten his frustration when he sees Penny "studying" for a film class with her latest beau Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Brown, who is pretty tall. Oscar decides to test him to see if he can play basketball, but his balls end up turning into bricks that build a house for Puff and Oscar proceeds to embarrass Kareem for being named after a famous basketball player. As he converses with Trudy over Penny's future in the kitchen, he sees Penny being able to score a hoop all by herself, something that he was able to teach her when she was a little girl.
After some mass begging on his part, Penny agrees to play for the Proud Snackers, at the same time sacrificing her studies with Kareem in order to win, which she does. A montage of Penny's many victories ensues, including a Space Jam-esque battle against an octopus from Saturn. This gives LaCienega and Maya an opportunity to steal Kareem away from Penny and she proceeds to tell about it to an angered Penny, who goes to the basketball court for more training. Kareem convinces Penny that she can always do her own thing, encouraging her to not follow her father's dreams. This, apparently, sees a change in Penny, who proves to be no match against Wizard Kelly's all-star team of players in one of the final matches. After Oscar calls a time out, Penny tells him off once and for all that beating Wizard Kelly is his dream and not hers and goes over to a sparsely attended concert to reclaim Kareem and outsmart LaCienega and Maya. Unfortunately, Wizard Kelly comes down to tell Oscar that he has forfeited the game and will have to surrender Peabo, who is Oscar's head of security, over to him.
In the end, Peabo ends up becoming a protégé to the Wizard while Oscar is given a position as a movie theater's ostiary alongside Bufferina, though his anger at seeing Penny still hanging out with Kareem gets him into trouble with the muscular woman, who sends him out into the sky after he neglects to give her a ticket.
==Cast==
*Kyla Pratt as Penny Proud
*Bresha Webb as CeCe Proud
*Aiden Dodson as BeBe Proud
*Jo Marie Payton as Suga Mama
*Paula Jai Parker as Trudy Proud
*Tommy Davidson as Oscar Proud
*Karen Malina White as Dijonay Jones
*Soleil Moon Frye as Zoey Howzer
*Alisa Reyes as LaCienega Boulevardez
*Raquel Lee Bolleau as Nubia Gross
*Carlos Mencia as Felix Boulevardez
*EJ Johnson as Michael Collins
*Keke Palmer as Maya Leibowitz-Jenkins
*Artist "A Boogie" Dubose as KG Leibowitz-Jenkins
*Aries Spears as Wizard Kelly
*Asante Blackk as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Brown
*Aldis Hodge as Frankie, Opposing Coach
*Cree Summer as Peabo, Bufferina
==Song==
*"All I Do Is Win (Remix)" by DJ Khaled
==Trivia==
*Morals
**Be true to yourself and don't try to let your parents pressure you into doing things that please them.
**If you are a parent, don't try to live your dreams through your kids.
*The movie Penny and Kareem are watching is a 1954 musical called Carmen Jones.
**Disney acquired the distribution rights for the film through its acquisition of 20th Century Fox.
*Penny references the events of "She's Got Game" and "One in a Million", with flashback footage from the latter also shown.
*This episode marks the first reappearances of Peabo, Felix Boulevardez, Frankie White, and the Reverend.
*Penny playing basketball on Saturn against a large tentacled alien references the movie Space Jam, right down to recreating the final scene where Michael Jordan stretches his arm to make the winning slam dunk. Bruce W. Smith was an animation director for that film.
*The title is in reference to Wizard Kelly's catchphrase.
*Penny’s Basketball Jersey Number is 2 as a tribute to the late Gianna Bryant the daughter of Kobe Bryant. Gianna Bryant’s Basketball Number was 2. Gianna Bryant’s father Kobe Bryant was a former professional Basketball Player. Both Gianna and Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash in January 26, 2020.
*Maya tells LaCienega that "Beethoven was a brotha'" and that he was a quarter black. This is a common misconception that was started due to how people perceived his broad features which people associated with African-American features. Beethoven was, in fact, Flemish.
*The prices for the Wizard Kelly Movie Theater are $12.50 for adults, $10 for children and seniors, $8.50 for a matinee, and "NEVER!" for Oscar Proud.
*The episode was adapted into a picture book, released on September 20, 2022.
==Gallery==
===Promotional and concept===
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===Screenshots===
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==External links==
*It All Started with an Orange Basketball on The Proud Family Wiki
==References==
Category:The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder episodes