“Starting 5,” a new hit Netflix TV series, follows five world-famous basketball players — LeBron James, Domantas Sabonis, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Edwards and Jimmy Butler — through the 2023-24 NBA season.
The show has the sort of scenes you’d expect, like the players’ reactions to winning (or losing) a game or being chosen (or not) for the All-Star Game. But the series’ main distinction has nothing to do with what’s happening on the court.
There are glimpses into the sports stars’ personal lives, business interests and life philosophies. Health and exercise regimens are explored. Players who are idols to millions are shown reacting to interactions with players they idolize.
“We knew we couldn’t make it for just hardcore basketball fans,” said “Starting 5” executive producer Peter Scalettar, who was raised in Connecticut. All 10 episodes of the show, ranging in length from 40 to 62 minutes, premiered on Oct. 5.
Mostly the five stars of “Starting 5” are shown at home. Viewers meet their families, see them dressing up for Halloween and watch Edwards become a father for the first time. Scalettar and his team got a level of access to the players’ home lives that seems almost unimaginable except that there it is on the screen.
“Starting 5” humanizes these larger-than-life celebrities. It shows them living day by day, facing the same pleasures and annoyances that so many non-superstars also contend with. There is plenty of court action, but the series also provides a close-up view of a certain type of contemporary family life.
“That’s what we’re most proud of, that it’s not just for the sports fans,” Scalettar said. “We’re there in their living rooms. We’re in the delivery room as a player has his first child. We’re with another player in the aftermath of his father dying. These are things we don’t have a front-row seat for with anybody, let alone some of the most famous basketball players in the world.”
Scalettar has lived in Los Angeles for the last 15 years but he grew up in Woodbridge and attended the Hopkins School in New Haven. His big childhood interests were basketball and hip-hop. He would follow UConn basketball games and the Big East tournament and see concerts at Toad’s Place. Both these passions would influence his film/TV career. Before “Starting 5,” Scalettar made the acclaimed 2019 docuseries “Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men.” As a producer, his other projects include “Cypress Hill: Insane in the Brain,” “Ice Cold: The Untold Story of Hip Hop Jewelry” and the concert special “Hip Hop 50 Live.”
“It’s been a dream come true to tell these stories,” Scalettar said.
Scalettar left Connecticut to study filmmaking at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. The bulk of his career has been as a producer of “The Bachelor,” “The Bachelorette” and various specials related to those shows.
“Starting Five,” the director explains, “was not my concept. I was hired to shoot and direct it. The precedent had been set with sports shows on Netflix, through the NBA is different from other sports. It’s embedded culturally in different ways. “People walk into shows like this with certain expectations. We felt we didn’t have to adhere to those. It’s a matter of knowing how to interact with humans from all walks of life. A level of trust opens up doors. We’ve seen that media-trained version of these people, but now they can let down their guard and show us who they really are.”
How are viewers responding to this unexpectedly homey and heartwarming sports series? “The reaction so far has been great,” Scalettar says, “including from people who have historically not opened their doors to this. It’s for people who are not necessarily interested in basketball, who may be more interested in this story, that guys who live this seemingly out-of-touch lifestyle are just like us.
“The big takeaway from this show is that all these guys prioritize family over everything else. I have the same philosophy. Family’s important. My children inspire me and motivate me. We’re all trying to do our best as parents.”
