Netflix’s latest sports docuseries brings the biggest star in basketball, a superstar in waiting, a newly crowned NBA champion and two pillars of playoff contenders to the screen.
Starting 5—a new 10-episode show focused on five of the NBA’s best talents: the Lakers’ LeBron James, Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, Boston’s Jayson Tatum, Miami’s Jimmy Butler and Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis—will premiere on Oct. 9, which will be 13 days before the start of the 2024-25 NBA regular season.
The docuseries is produced by James’ Uninterrupted studio (a part of his SpringHill Company), in association with Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions and Higher Ground Productions, the studio run by former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama. Each outfit already has sports programs currently available or soon to debut on Netflix, but this is the first time all three groups have come together for a single show.
Starting 5 looks back at the 2023-24 season, during which each player experienced the highs and lows of the NBA and shared glimpses into their family lives away from basketball. James’ Lakers may have won the league’s inaugural In-Season Tournament, but not much else went right for the team, as the season culminated in yet another coaching change.
Edwards further came into his own as one of the NBA’s more dynamic personalities with a game to match. Butler’s Heat struggled to regain the footing that brought them to the NBA Finals a year before. Sabonis was a double-double machine for the Kings, but the team took a step back a season after breaking a long playoff drought.
Only Tatum got the final win of the year, hoisting the NBA championship last June after his Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks.
The world’s most popular streamer has had a foothold in the sports documentary genre for years, even taking home the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2018 for Icarus, the film that shed a light on the 2015 Russian doping scandal. Just this month, Netflix dropped a new season of its Untold series, which put spotlights on the murder of Steve McNair, Hope Solo’s battle with U.S. Soccer and the sign-stealing saga involving former Michigan football assistant Connor Stalions. (The Stalions episode was produced by Uninterrupted.)
Netflix also released the first part of the track-themed Sprint series and Simone Biles Rising ahead of the Paris Olympics.
Of course, Netflix’s most famous sports docuseries is Formula 1: Drive to Survive, which has been credited as an entry point for many Americans into F1 as the racing circuit experienced significant ratings bumps over the last four years. Although the direct correlation between interest in Drive and interest in live races has been debated, the belief persisted enough that Drive served as a template for multiple sports docuseries—by Netflix and others—over the last three years, with mixed results.
Starting 5, like Manning’s main productions Quarterback and Receiver, isn’t asked to introduce a sport to potential fans, though that’s not out of the question. James is the most famous active American athlete, while Edwards, Tatum and Butler are known commodities. (Sabonis, the son of Lithuanian Hall of Famer Arvydas Sabonis, should certainly connect with Netflix’s European audiences.)
Netflix’s sports documentary library is expanding, but the next several months will be a critical period for the company as it fully engages into streaming live sports events. For those who don’t mind some gluttony on Labor Day, it will live stream Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef, featuring competitive eaters Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi. In November, Netflix will stream the delayed Mike Tyson-Jake Paul boxing card that’s taking place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The company recently made a deal with CBS Sports to produce its Christmas Day NFL games. Finally, WWE’s Monday Night Raw will make its way to the platform for the U.S. audience in January after over 30 years on cable television.
