Like LeBron James and other pro basketball players before him, Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant has dunked himself into the waters of movies and TV. The actor recently teamed up with Apple and Imagine Television’s Brian Grazer for a scripted drama series loosely based on his life, Deadline reports.
The idea for the series, Swagger, came about after Durant met Grazer, who executive produced the sports-focused drama series Friday Night Lights. Grazer told Deadline that he’d been wanting to return to that world when he happened to meet Durant. The two were both attending The Camp, an annual summer gathering hosted by Google that welcomes heavy hitters from a variety of fields. (Past attendees have included Prince Harry, Rihanna, and George Lucas, according to Forbes.) Grazer and Durant made plans to get together in Los Angeles, and when they did, they discussed what the basketball star’s childhood was like after scouts and brands started calling when he was just 12 years old.
The idea for Swagger — a series centering on young basketball players and their families — was born out of that conversation.
“He created a beautiful world that the Friday Night Lights essence could inhabit,” Grazer said, according to Deadline. “It has the same things. The fragility of how you were as a kid, and how these kids — 12 to 13 years old — are presented with money, real money. … It’s a fascinating universe of possibilities.”
Friday Night Lights was football-centric, so Swagger will differ in that respect, but there will be numerous common themes. The series will reportedly show the kids’ families navigating the “youth-sports economy,” as Deadline puts it. We saw that in Friday Night Lights during its run from 2006 to 2011, and although the series never was a ratings giant, it did maintain a loyal fan following and critical acclaim.
Durant and Grazer seem like a good fit for a partnership with Apple. The company is investing heavily in original programming, and has been doing so with the help of big names. Reese Witherspoon, Octavia Spencer, Steven Spielberg, and Dr. Dre are just some of the technology and entertainment giant’s uber-successful collaborators.
Swagger does not currently have a season order, but we hope to see it on our screens before long.
