Netflix is premiering a new series following five NBA players on and off the court during the 2023-2024 season.
The series premiers on Oct. 9 and features LeBron James, Anthony Edwards, Jayson Tatum, Jimmy Butler and Domantas Sabonis. The first look at a full trailer released this week.
The five players featured represent some of the league’s best, all of them coming from very different backgrounds and having unique stories to tell from last season. Edwards rose to true stardm, becoming the leader of the Minnesota Timberwolves in perhaps their best season since the Kevin Garnett years.
The Timberwolves toppled the reigning champion Denver Nuggets in the second round of the playoffs before falling to the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals. But it was Edwards’ ascension that makes the Timberwolves’ future look as bright as it ever has.
Jimmy Butler
Anthony Edwards
LeBron James
Domantas Sabonis
Jayson TatumStarting 5, a new Netflix Sports series, will follow their 2023-24 season on and off the court. Coming October 9. pic.twitter.com/8tvPzMFizr
— Netflix (@netflix) August 28, 2024
Tatum, meanwhile, won his first NBA championship with the juggernaut Boston Celtics. Tatum faced spurts of criticism throughout the season, but turned the doubts into fuel as he helped lead Boston to its first championship in 16 years.
Sabonis continued to help restore the Sacramento Kings to relevance with another All-Star caliber campaign. He has been a major part of one of the best franchise turnarounds in recent NBA memory. And Butler, the Miami Heat star, is one of the league’s most interesting players, even if his team didn’t have the best of seasons.
No Toronto Raptors are featured in the first edition of this series, but if they are to continue, there is no doubt that Scottie Barnes could eventually be a part of the show if his star continues to rise.
Scottie Barnes and Raptors receive low NBA 2K25 ratings
NBA 2K25 is scheduled to release on Sep. 6, which means the player and team ratings for the game have been steadily unveiled over the course of the past month.
The Raptors, from top to bottom, received some surprisingly low ratings. This starts with Barnes. The Raptors star began last season as an 83 and worked his way up to an 85 by the end of the season. Given the natural progression of young players, it was expected that he would see an increase in his 85 overall.
Instead, NBA 2K25 has held him at that 85 to begin this season as well. He is the highest-rated player on the Raptors. Behind him are the former Knicks — Barrett and Quickley — who are both 81s.
Poeltl sits behind those two with an 80 overall and Kelly Olynyk rounds out the top five at an 80 as well. The Raptors have the second-worst overall team rating — 80 — in the league, ahead of only the Washington Wizards.
No one is expecting the Raptors to be a very good team this season. However, 2K25 seems to think very lowly of what the Raptors have this season.
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