He might not have starred opposite Amy Schumer, Adam Sandler, Chevy Chase or Bugs Bunny just yet, but Stephen Curry is shaping up to be as much of a hit on the screen, as he is on the court.
The four-time NBA champion and two-time World Cup winner, who recently added an Olympic Gold Medal to his trophy collection, now has his own sitcom in the form of Mr. Throwback (now streaming on TVNZ+), something Jordan, Abdul-Jabbar, O’Neal or James could never boast.
In truth, the 36-year-old Golden State Warrior point guard isn’t the main focus of the show, but he’s certainly the drawcard and, coming after last year’s Apple documentary Stephen Curry: Underrated and his on-course-assistance role in hit mini-golf contest Holey Moley, it represents more proof of his charisma and scene-stealing abilities.
As his opening voiceover intones, the six-part Mr. Throwback is “the story of one of the most dominating basketball players of all-time”.
“He was so good, I was his back-up. So cool, I was his friend.”
So why haven’t we heard of Danny Grossman (Knuckles’ Adam Pally) – North Carolina’s “Jewish Jordan” – until now?
As this Modern Family/Abbott Elementary-esque mockumentary quickly details, it’s because of one technicality that derailed his record-breaking junior high school career. Sure, he might have boasted the unique blend of talent, size and basketball IQ that only comes from being a coach’s son, but 12-year-old Danny’s double- triple of 100 points and 100 blocks (later revealed to have been achieved while running a temperature of 102F) had to be wiped from the books because it turned out, the youngest-ever Wheaties-box star was actually 14-and-a-half.
“I had no excuses, except I was an addict at the time – alcohol, narcotics, gambling, porn,” admits Mitch Grossman (Tracy Letts) to the documentary team. The setback sent young Danny into a spiral. He moved in with his Aunt and cut off all contact with his Charlotte Christian High School mates like Curry and Kimberly Gregg (Ego Nwodim), now CEO of the sportsman’s Curry Up and Wait production company.
But now, more than two decades on, Danny desperately needs their help. Despite his Double Dribble Vintage shop boasting such essential sporting memorabilia as “the nine-iron used by Tiger Woods’…wife when she smashed up his Escalade”, he’s found himself owing a very large sum to some very bad people.
With supposedly just 24 hours to “save his ass”, Danny reaches out to Curry, concocting a sob story about his beloved daughter Charlie (Layla Scalisi) having a rare terminal illness.
Despite already being in talks for a Faith-based prank show with Steve Harvey and having almost sold a half-hour comedy called Teen Steph (“Phoebe Waller-Bridge is writing it,” he boasts), Curry is more than happy to help out, quickly calling in favours to try and erect a potentially money-spinning celebrity charity basketball game that’s sure to raise the funds needed “to find a cure for Charlie”.
As Gregg wryly notes, “people do love a redemption story, but they also love a trainwreck” and Mr. Throwback certainly leans into the latter, Pally convincingly portraying a walking disaster area, while still making us want him to succeed, regardless of a lot of his problems being self-inflicted.
But if Pally gets the showier role, Curry is still the MVP, sending up his own image effectively and clearly enjoying taking the mickey out of himself. “I do cool stuff all the time, so it’s better to keep the cameras rolling to catch everything,” he says, when queried about the camera crew following him seemingly everywhere.
Yes, the premise is fairly one note and not many of the jokes are slam dunks, but there’s a simplicity and directness to Mr. Throwback that, while not reaching the brilliant, edgy heights of, say, Tour de Pharmacy or 7 Days in Hell, makes this an easy, entertaining watch – even for non-basketball fans.