Apple is gearing up to fill its streaming platform with new content with a series based on Kevin Durant's life.
The series, Swagger, will follow the lives of kids as they navigate playing Amateur Athletic Union basketball in Washington, DC. in the midst of money-hungry adults, lucrative sponsorship deals, and ambitious athletes.
The NBA star is teaming up with Brian Grazer's Imagine Television to produce the scripted drama. Grazer, who previously produced the widely-acclaimed football series, Friday Night Lights, told Deadline that he was captured by Durant's story.
"He created a beautiful world that the Friday Night Lights essence could inhabit," said Grazer. "It has the same things. The fragility of how you were as a kid, and how these kids — 12-13 years old — are presented with money, real money, (from athletic apparel brands). It’s a fascinating universe of possibilities."
Durant's business partner, Rich Kleiman, also spoke with the site about how Durant's story isn't that far from Friday Night Lights. "One thing we talked about is how much we loved Friday Night Lights and we saw this potential to do Friday Night Lights updated, inspired by Hoop Dreams and focused on basketball," said Kleiman.
Reggie Rock Bythewood, who recently wrote and produced Shots Fired, is set to write and direct the series. As for Apple, they're just getting started as they also greenlit Octavia Spencer–led film Are You Sleeping and a half-hour anthology series, Little America. Watch out Netflix.
