Netflix‘s big new NBA docuseries is official. The streaming giant says that the series, called Starting 5, will debut Oct. 9 and follow NBA superstars LeBron James, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Edwards, Jimmy Butler and Domantas Sabonis during the 2023-2024 season, giving viewers “an unfiltered view of life at the pinnacle of professional basketball.”
Former president Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are among the executive producers, with their Higher Ground serving as one of the production companies, as is Peyton Manning through his Omaha Productions.
Uninterrupted, the production company co-founded by James, is also working on the series, with Maverick Carter serving as an EP.
Starting 5 has been in the works for nearly a year, but the 10-episode series is finally set to make its debut just ahead of the new NBA season, coming off of a big championship season for Tatum and the Celtics.
The series is arguably one of the biggest sports docuseries to date for Netflix, given the star power involved. While Netflix broke into the genre with hits like the Formula 1 series Drive to Survive and the PGA Tour series Full Swing, it has since expanded into a wide array of sports docs.
Manning and Omaha previously partnered with the NFL for the series Quarterback (which was picked up for another season as Receiver this year), while the Obamas are also producing a series about some of the 2024 Olympic basketball teams.
Other sports docs in the works at Netflix include projects about Simone Biles and the Dallas Cowboys.
The sports doc genre has become enormously competitive, with leagues, teams and athletes all gunning for their own projects, given the high profile and reception from some of the films and series that have hit the market. And other streaming services have entered the space as well, like Amazon with its Jason Kelce documentary.
Of course, sports is dominated by superstars, and Starting 5 is chock full of them, making it a potentially major entrant into the space.
EP of Starting 5 are Maverick Carter, Jamal Henderson, Philip Byron and Randy Mims (for Uninterrupted); President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Vinnie Malhotra and Ethan Lewis (for Higher Ground); Peyton Manning, Jamie Horowitz and Sam Pepper (for Omaha); with Peter J. Scalettar serving as showrunner.
