USA TODAY International Edition
NBA star Durant brings ‘ Swagger’ to Apple TV+
NBA champion Kevin Durant is in his 15th pro season, but if you ask the Brooklyn Nets superstar, he’s still a “student” of the game. Basketball “can teach you so much about life in general,” he tells USA TODAY. “Each experience is something that can make you better and help you grow as an individual and a player.”
The experience of bringing his new Apple TV+ sports drama series “Swagger” ( first three episodes now streaming) to fruition was a learning opportunity for Durant, creator/ director Reggie Rock Bythewood (“Notorious,” “Shots Fired”) and the cast after production was shut down amid the pandemic and the reemergence of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“It was a challenging process. We shut down for six months,” Bythewood says. “All of a sudden, the pandemic hit and so we reflected it in the narrative. You can divide the show in almost two parts of what it was before George Floyd and Breonna ( Taylor) and COVID- 19 and what happened after.”
The series follows Jace Carson ( Isaiah Hill), a 14- year- old top- ranked basketball player in the Washington, D. C., area who has star potential. His overzealous mother Jenna ( Shinelle Azoroh), overprotective coach Ike ( O’Shea Jackson Jr.) and best friend Crystal ( Quvenzhané Wallis) keep him grounded against mounting pressure from social media trolls, corruption and jealousy.
But what started out as a basketball narrative inspired by Durant’s youth evolved over the production shutdown into a show that tackles many “stories that had nothing to do with basketball”: the pandemic, growing racial tensions, police brutality, sexual assault, child abuse and bullying.
“( Durant’s) story is a launching pad. It’s not a Kevin Durant biopic,” Bythewood says. “We talked about the world and bigger issues within sports.”
While many shows shy away from the reality of COVID- 19 and lockdowns, “Swagger” leans into it. The characters grapple with the unknowns of the virus and pandemic in real time, reacting to NBA star Rudy Gobert’s positive coronavirus test on March 11, 2020. A team member’s grandfather contracts the disease. Players wear masks and social distance.
“The truth right before our eyes shifted,” Bythewood says of the show’s changing dynamic. “We had to do it. It would feel inauthentic for us not to do that.”
Durant says he and producers wanted to keep the story “authentic to what people go through day to day. To keep it out wouldn’t do it justice.”
Jackson’s Ike is a fictional youth basketball coach and former phenomenon who never lived up to his full potential.
Durant doesn’t know how much longer he’ll play in the NBA. But coach is a title he eventually wants to add to his résumé.
“I remember when I was running around, 10 years old, playing the game,” Durant says. “I would love to share some of this knowledge that I learned and give back to the next generation of ballers. That would be a good next step for me.”