Category: SpringHill Entertainment

LeBron’s SpringHill Entertainment gets new investment, adds Serena Williams to board

The production company started by LeBron James and Maverick Carter is continuing to expand its reach.

The production company started by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, SpringHill Entertainment, confirmed to Deadline Hollywood on Thursday that they had secured a massive new investment and also added additional expertise on the SpringHill board of directors as they look to expand their reach.

According to the Deadline report, the investments into SpringHill from production powerhouse Sister, which created HBO’s Chernobyl, as well as several other investment groups, total upwards of $100 million. Sister’s executive chairman, Liz Murdoch, a member of the Murdoch media empire, has joined the SpringHill board of directors, as has Tennis superstar Serena Williams. Apollo Global Management Co-Founder Marc Rowan and Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino are also part of the board.

Alongside those new additions, longtime business partners Paul Wachter and Tom Werner also remain a part of the SpringHill board. With the addition of Murdoch and the global reach of their massive media empire, it likely won’t be long before folks in other countries start seeing SpringHill Entertainment on their screens.

Just like Klutch Sports, SpringHill Entertainment has its sights set on more than just being a long-term force in their business.

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LeBron announces SpringHill documentary about 1921 Tulsa race massacre, Black Wall Street

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James’ production company SpringHill Entertainment announced a new project that is in development.

As protests continue all over the United States against racial violence against black people, LeBron James and his business partner Maverick Carter announced a new project about one of the biggest incidents of racial violence in the history of the nation, one that you very likely didn’t hear about in history class.

Writer Salima Koroma is developing a documentary for LeBron’s SpringHill Entertainment about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 in the Tulsa neighborhood of Greenwood, colloquially known as the “Black Wall Street,” for the neighborhood’s affluence and financial success. However, those markers of success and the town’s growth became threats to their white neighbors, at a time of segregation, and it led to one of the worst racial massacres in American history and the decimation of the community.

Many of the productions from LeBron and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill have been about black history in the United States, including “Shut Up and Dribble,” “Self Made: Inspired by the life of Madam C.J. Walker.” and “What’s My Name: Muhammad Ali.”

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Feel Free To Comment, Season 2, Ep. 1: Cam’s growing pains

Cam Calloway is entrenched as an NBA star, but he’s having trouble realizing that his job requires more than just basketball.

Welcome back to Season 2 of the podcast “Feel Free To Comment,” about the LeBron James and Maverick Carter-produced sitcom on STARZ, Survivor’s Remorse. My co-host Sean Highkin and I have already recapped all of the first season for you and now we are moving into the second season, which will see the storylines add more depth and where we will also see more of the new characters become a bigger part of the show.

But as we begin season 2, we go back to Cam Calloway, who is trying to balance his new role as a max contract player for Atlanta while also being asked to do off-the-court activities that are part of his contract but not necessarily part of becoming a better basketball player. Cam insists on being treated like a grown man, but his immaturity is shining through.

It will take his cousin/manager Reggie, as well as a heart-to-heart with the team’s owner Jimmy Flarehty, played by Chris Bauer, aka Frank Sobotka from “The Wire,” before Cam realizes he needs to realize his job is bigger than basketball.

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LeBron James and Tom Brady to work together on new Apple show

Lakers star LeBron James and NFL star Tom Brady are collaborating on a new sports program for Apple TV-+.

LeBron James and Tom Brady are two of the biggest names of their generation and they will be joining forces together in a new production about their exploits on the court and the field, that will be featured as part of Apple TV-Plus. LeBron and Brady will both be featured as stars in the show, while also having a hand in the production, through their companies UNINTERRUPTED and Religion of Sport.

Director Gotham Chopra, who also directed ‘Shut Up and Dribble,’ produced by UNINTERRUPTED and Religion of Sport for Showtime, will direct the new Apple series entitled “Greatness Code,” Apple announced on Thursday. In addition to LeBron and Brady, Usain Bolt, Alex Morgan, Katie Ledecky, and Shaun White will all have ‘short-form’ documentaries about them.

LeBron James always busy with the production of sports-related content, but he’s been even busier over the past few weeks. The announcement of the new Apple series comes less than two weeks after UNINTERRUPTED and Quibi announced a new documentary about the Houston Astros sign-stealing cheating scandal. Earlier this week it was reported that he’s also working on a Netflix movie with Adam Sandler, who will play an American basketball scout overseas who is trying to make his way back to the NBA.

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‘Feel Free to Comment’ Episode 5: ‘Out of the Past’

In the fifth episode of season one, Cam Calloway continues to negotiate with sneaker companies to make the best decision for him.

This week we will finish covering season one of the STARZ/SpringHill Entertainment’s basketball-themed comedy “Survivor’s Remorse,” which will focus on Cam Calloway continuing to negotiate with sneaker companies, including Nike, whom have offered him more money but have not offered him the equity that he’s been promised from the fictional Chinese upstart brand Da Chen Bao.

In addition to the sneaker negotiation storyline, we have a cameo from Lil Romeo! Lil Romeo plays a friend, Jay, from Cam’s home in Boston, who made a bad decision and ended up in jail, ruining what was a promising basketball career and losing a scholarship to Syracuse. Now that he’s out, the less-heralded Cam became an NBA star. All of this makes Cam feel guilty, while Reggie thinks something is fishy.

Thursday’s episode will be the finale of Season 1, which will finish before leading into a much more robust Season 2, where the storylines add a lot more layers and characters start to clearly find their paths. You can follow the podcast on Apple, Google, and Spotify.

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‘Feel Free to Comment’ Episode 4: ‘The Decisions’

In the next episode of ‘Survivor’s Remorse,’ Cam starts to take meetings with shoe companies and Reggie looks to expand his own brand.

In episode 4 of the first season of Survivor’s Remorse, Cam Calloway begins to take meetings with shoe companies, with a lot of parallels to the negotiations that an 18-year old LeBron James went through with Adidas, Nike, and Reebok. But instead of Reebok, the modern take on it in the show, made in 2014, has been replaced by Under Armour, who give Cam and Reggie a check for $10 million at the end of their meetings. As we know thanks to Brian Windhorst’s book LeBron Inc., the $10 million check is a real story from LeBron’s life, with Reebok giving one to him and his mother.

However, Cam’s cousin Reggie insists that Cam waits for Nike, and a fictional upstart Chinese brand named Da Chen Bao.

In a parallel storyline as Cam is trying to figure out which shoe company is the best for him, Reggie Vaughn, Cam’s manager/agent, is going to a Black-owned country club to try to become a member at the behest of his wife Missy. The country club scene also features a hilarious cameo from TNT’s Ernie Johnson.

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‘Feel Free to Comment’ Episode 3: ‘How to build a brand’

Erik and Sean break down the third episode of the first season of ‘Survivor’s Remorse’ which touches on the cynicism of branding.

Episode three of the first season of ‘Survivor’s Remorse’ touches on some often untouched subjects when it comes to sports, philanthropy, branding and how good deeds for people in a position of power often serve the people in power more than the people they are helping. In the case of this episode, the person helping their cause by helping others is Cam Calloway.

Sean and I will discuss why they touch on this, while also explaining why this may be the first great episode of the show in the first season. Perhaps no episode ties together the aspects of business, branding, and how good deeds can sometimes be transactional branding ploys. Also, in this episode, Reggie finally gets Cam to give everyone in his family a salary and real roles in his circle.

This episode is great and we break down why. The show ‘Survivor’s Remorse’ is currently available to stream on STARZ. Meanwhile, the first four episodes of ‘Feel Free to Comment’ are available on Apple, Google, and Spotify podcasts.

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Feel Free to Comment Season 1, Ep. 2: ‘On the carpet’

As Cam and his family get used to the position of basketball stardom, they realize the platform is a double-edged sword.

After the pilot episode of ‘Survivor’s Remorse’ takes Cam Calloway and his manager Reggie Vaughn back through their neighborhood and through past experiences, episode two of the show is very much about the world and responsibilities that Cam and his family will have to inhabit.

What would have been an innocuous comment from his mom at a charity event immediately becomes a huge story and in the past, it wouldn’t have been one. It’s in this episode that Cam and his family realize the new space that they have inherited as people with platforms whose words have consequences beyond their immediate world.

In addition to the fact that we see Cam and his family deal with real-life consequences to their actions, we see an idealistic look at owner/player relations and we also see how difficult it can be for people to adjust to the new context of their lives. Erik and Sean also discuss the timeliness of the episode which was aired near the time Adrian Peterson was charged for child endangerment.

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Feel Free to Comment Season 1, Ep. 1: ‘In the Offing’

Sean Highkin and Erik Garcia Gundersen start with their first true episode of ‘Feel Free to Comment’ following ‘Survivor’s Remorse.’

Yesterday I introduced you to ‘Feel Free to Comment,’ a new podcast brought to you by myself and my friend Sean Highkin of Bleacher Report about the LeBron James/Maverick Carter-produced show ‘Survivor’s Remorse,’ that aired on Starz for four seasons. If you are still wondering why we have a podcast about this show, please listen to the first episode.

In the first official episode of ‘Feel Free to Comment,” Sean and I break down the pilot episode of the show, “In the Offing,” where a young Cam Calloway has just signed his first big-money contract after entering the unidentified pro basketball league that is the stand-in for the NBA.

The episode follows Calloway moving to his new city of Atlanta, alongside his manager/cousin Reggie Vaughn, and the rest of his family, who we meet in the episode. It also shows that even when success comes, it’s still impossible to escape where you grew up. Until you do.

‘Feel Free to Comment’ is available wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the podcast on Twitter and Instagram.

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‘Feel Free to Comment’ a podcast about LeBron’s ‘Survivor’s Remorse’

LeBron Wire editor Erik García Gundersen explains why he and Sean Highkin are doing a podcast about the LeBron-produced Starz program.

If you’ve been following LeBron James and his career for a long time, you probably know that he helped executive produce a show about the life of a professional basketball star entitled “Survivor’s Remorse” on STARZ. Odds are that even if you have heard of the show, you haven’t actually watched it But you should, because there is no piece of content that has been produced by LeBron James that gives an honest or more accurate appraisal of the life of a pro basketball star. In fact, I’m of the opinion that it gives us a better window into the mind of LeBron more than a documentary ever could.

That’s why my friend Sean Highkin of Bleacher Report and I have started “Feel Free to Comment,” a podcast about Survivor’s Remorse, that will take you chronologically through the series. The first episode, where we explain why we are doing a podcast about this show, is available wherever you get your podcasts. There is a link to listen on Spotify at the bottom of this post. Hopefully, you’ve seen the show and can follow along, or the podcast inspires you to check the show out for yourself. If you’re a basketball fan looking to learn more about the off-court world of an NBA star and how they navigate it, this is the show for you.

Also as a disclaimer, the show is rated TV-MA, so podcast banter will also be occasionally NSFW.

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And, as the podcast title says, feel free to send comments to us about the show.

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