LeBron James To Produce TV Comedy On Starz Called "Survivor’s Remorse"

 

 

After LeBron James won his second NBA championship this year, he talked about the improbability of his journey — ascending to world fame despite growing up with challenge after challenge in the inner city.

 

 

Reports ESPN.com:

Now James plans to explore that theme as part of “Survivor’s Remorse,” a new show he’s developing with Starz.
“James I think the main thing for me is … making it out of a place where you’re not supposed to. You’re supposed to be a statistic and end up like the rest of the people in the inner city — (and) being one of the few to make it out and everyone looking at you to be the savior. ” — LeBron James on survivor’s remorse

While he won’t star in the half-hour sitcom, the Miami Heat superstar will be one of the executive producers of the show, which will explore the lives of two men from the streets who attain fame — one is an NBA star and one is not — and how they deal with friends and families in the wake of that success.
 

“I think the main thing for me is, first of all, making it out of a place where you’re not supposed to. You’re supposed to be a statistic and end up like the rest of the people in the inner city — [and] being one of the few to make it out and everyone looking at you to be the savior,” James said in a phone interview last week.
 

“When you make it out, everyone expects — they automatically think that they made it out and it’s very tough for a young, African-American 18-year-old kid to now hold the responsibility of a whole city, of a whole community. I can relate to that as well,” said James, who was 18 when he entered the NBA.
 

James, 28, is developing the show with his longtime friend and business partner, Maverick Carter; Tom Werner, the producer behind classic shows like “Roseanne” and “The Cosby Show”; and actor Mike O’Malley, who will be an executive producer and is the show’s writer. Paul Wachter will also be an executive producer.
“It’s definitely not an autobiographical series about my life or LeBron’s life; it’s fictional characters living in a fictional world,” said Carter, before adding with a laugh: “LeBron is actually too famous, he would screw the show up if I tried to make a show about him.”
LeBron James will help produce a TV show that will explore survivor’s guilt of making it out of the inner city.
 

The show is based in North Philadelphia instead of Akron, Ohio, where James and Carter are from: “More people can relate to it,” explained Carter of Philadelphia.
Still, Werner said the inspiration for the series started in part with conversations he had with Carter, and later James, about their lives.
 

“I think the juxtaposition of great wealth — and then you go back to your home in Akron and the neighborhood that you come from — the chasm is a fairly big one, and I think it’s some very interesting story material,” he said.
 

Werner, James and Carter have worked together since 2011. They are part of Fenway Sports Group, and Werner is the chairman of the organization, which combines sports, media and entertainment. Werner said they were “delighted” to bring the show, which is in development but has no firm timetable to air, to Starz.

 

Hmmm...seems like this is the black-athlete version of "Entourage". Interesting...I'll be checking it out. What do you think?