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LeBron James, Peyton Manning, and Barack and Michelle Obama are teaming up for a new sports documentary series about the NBA.
According to reports, the production companies owned by James, Manning, and the Obamas — SpringHill Company, Omaha Productions, and Higher Ground — are planning a docuseries that would follow the lives of professional basketball players, similar to what Netflix did in its Quarterback series (also co-produced by Manning’s Omaha Productions).
The format would bring the same approach to the NBA that Omaha’s Quarterback brought to the NFL. The NBA is also expected to be involved in the show, much as NFL Films is a partner on Quarterback. The Wall Street Journal says that the show will likely end on Netflix, where Higher Ground has a first-look deal, and where Quarterback emerged as a successful addition to the genre earlier this year. [via The Hollywood Reporter]
At this time, however, given how early things are, no NBA stars are currently attached to feature in the series. That said, LeBron himself could appear in the series, as could any of his buddy Rich Paul’s clients, such as Anthony Davis, De’Aaron Fox, Darius Garland, Draymond Green, Zach LaVine, Tyrese Maxey, Dejounte Murray, Fred VanVleet, Trae Young, and more.
Recent years have seen a boom of day-in-the-life sports docuseries, particularly on Netflix, which have series such as Drive to Survive (Formula 1), Break Point (tennis) Full Swing (golf), and Quarterback (NFL football). HBO has also introduced an in-season version of their long-running NFL-focused docuseries Hard Knocks, while Prime Video has the Premier League-focused All or Northing.
The Manning brothers have been quite busy with Omaha Productions in recent years, as they’ve not only co-produced Netflix’s Quarterback with NFL Films but have also made series such as Peyton’s Places and the wildly popular Manningcast on ESPN’s Monday Night Football.