The Greatest Arrives on Prime Video: Nathan Pirtle Celebrates Ben Watkins and Jaalen Best
Published
Issued by: Press release issued by the producer through affiliated publications.
A producer's perspective on the creative partnership behind the Muhammad Ali series, now streaming in eight episodes
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 5, 2026 — Producer Nathan Pirtle is celebrating the release of The Greatest on Prime Video, placing creator and showrunner Ben Watkins alongside star Jaalen Best at the center of his appreciation for the Muhammad Ali series. For Pirtle, the two deserve equal recognition for distinct contributions: Watkins shaping the dramatic world and Best carrying its central performance. His comparison is to a trainer and a fighter—different responsibilities, a shared commitment and a result that belongs to their partnership.
The Greatest premiered November 4, with all eight episodes available on Prime Video. Best plays Cassius Clay, the young boxer who becomes Muhammad Ali. Watkins serves as creator, showrunner and executive producer. The series is an authorized dramatization of Ali's life, developed with access to his estate, with Lonnie Ali among its executive producers.
Pirtle's response comes from inside the production's credited team. Nathan Pirtle is credited as a producer. His full name, Nathan Allen Pirtle, appears across his professional and publishing work. This release presents his perspective on the series and its collaborators.
Equal recognition for different work
The trainer-and-fighter comparison is a statement of creative respect. It does not make the showrunner and the actor interchangeable. Watkins is responsible for a larger dramatic framework; Best must make the central character live within it. Pirtle's point is that the visibility of the performance should draw attention to the creative leadership that helps give it shape, just as the scale of the production should never obscure the actor at its center.
In Pirtle's assessment, Watkins delivered with the same force that Best brought to the role. The recognition should move in both directions. Best's portrayal is the face of the series, while Watkins' work gives the story its structure and the ensemble a common dramatic purpose. Celebrating one contribution need not reduce the other to a supporting footnote.
That is what makes the boxing comparison useful. A fighter has to enter the ring and meet the moment. A trainer's preparation has a different form and a different visibility. The analogy describes Pirtle's view of the creative partnership; it is not a claim that either man performed the other's job or that the production can be reduced to two people.
The person within the public figure
The series follows a young Cassius Clay through the personal and professional pressures surrounding his emergence as Muhammad Ali. Its premise makes room for the family relationships and private responsibilities around a figure whose public identity became inseparable from conviction, athletic achievement and self-definition.
For Pirtle, that scope matters. A story about an iconic person has to carry the audience's prior knowledge while still allowing a character to face the next moment without knowing the ending. The creative challenge is to make the individual visible within the reputation. His praise for Watkins and Best centers on that shared undertaking: building the dramatic conditions around the character and then meeting them in performance.
The release celebrates the series as a collaborative production. Its central portrayal exists within an ensemble that includes Omari Hardwick as Cassius Clay Sr., Dana Gourrier as Odessa “Bird” Clay, Kai Parham as Rudy Clay, Amin Joseph as Sonny Liston, Giovanni Ribisi as Angelo Dundee and Michael Ealy as Malcolm X.
Those roles place family, opponents, advisers and influential relationships around the central figure. Pirtle's appreciation for the lead partnership extends to the people whose work gives that world its breadth. A title of this scale is sustained by contributions that reach far beyond the names most prominently displayed in a campaign.
The producing team
The production brings together Amazon MGM Studios and collaborators including Watkins' Blue Monday Productions, Michael B. Jordan's Outlier Society, Authentic Studios, Roc Nation, Polygram Entertainment and Grace: A Storytelling Company. Shawn Carter, known as Jay-Z, is part of the producing team, alongside Jordan, Watkins and Lonnie Ali.
The producing credits include Ben Watkins, Michael B. Jordan, Lonnie Ali, Shawn Carter, Elizabeth Raposo, Corey Salter, Matthew Gross, Marc Rosen, Boyd Muir, Michele Anthony, Josh Wakely, Craig Siebels, Aiyana White, Jeff Augustin, Katie Wech, Owen Shiflett, Stefano Agosto, David Blackman, Desiree Perez, Umar White, Steven Lang, Blaize Ali-Watkins, Chris Agoston, Lori York, Jana Fleishman, Chase Ali-Watkins, Nahid Islam and Nathan Pirtle.
The series' directing team includes Ben Watkins, Stacey Muhammad, Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr., Craig Siebels and A.V. Rockwell. Their work, together with the cast and the wider production crew, forms the collaborative setting for the achievements Pirtle is celebrating.
A release worth recognizing together
Pirtle's message is one of shared recognition. Watkins and Best stand at the center of his tribute because the relationship between creative leadership and performance is central to how he understands the series. The trainer prepares the conditions; the fighter meets the moment. In his view, both delivered.
The comparison also leaves room for the rest of the team. Producers, writers, directors, performers and crew contribute work with different degrees of public visibility. A release provides an opportunity to recognize those contributions together, while keeping each person's role accurate.
The Greatest is now available on Prime Video. Viewers can watch the eight-episode season and form their own response to its portrayal of Muhammad Ali and the world around him.
About Nathan Pirtle
Nathan Pirtle, also known as Nathan Allen Pirtle, is a producer credited on The Greatest. His professional work spans marketing, entrepreneurship, speaking and writing. He founded Work With The Coach and publishes through a network that includes Slate Intelligence, Pirtle Reserve and his professional and author websites.
Media inquiries: nathan@pirtlereserve.com
Press release issued by Nathan Pirtle's affiliated publications. This is a producer's statement, not an announcement issued by Prime Video or Amazon MGM Studios.
