In the lead up to LeBron James‘ free agency decision this summer, there was rampant speculation about why he might choose one location over another. Purely from a basketball standpoint, there really wasn’t an obvious choice that would’ve cleared a traversable path to a championship anytime soon. Philadelphia emerged as an interesting thought-experiment, but that never came to fruition.
Instead, LeBron ended up confirming all the rumors about his interest in the Lakers, with both he and his agent at various points admitting that the decision was based on a number of factors only tangentially related to basketball. For starters, the proximity to Hollywood really can’t be overstated.
Granted, LeBron would no doubt be able to pursue his interest in TV and film regardless of where he resides, but living in Los Angeles full time will only grease the wheels on that endeavor. And it appears his move to Tinseltown is already paying dividends for his burgeoning media empire.
According to Nellie Andreeva of Deadline Hollywood, LeBron’s company Springhill Entertainment recently sold a script to NBC for a sitcom based on Ben Simmons’ life.
Written by Kang’s brother, Patrick Kang, and Michael Levin, Brotherly Love is inspired by the life of Ben Simmons and centers on a unique sibling relationship within a multi-ethnic family. Together, they pursue their dreams while navigating life in the spotlight in Philadelphia, a passionate city where sports is in your blood, and your blood is always boiling.
It bears noting that the prospective show is still in the early development stage, but it’s yet another major step for LeBron’s SpringHill Entertainment to be adding a possible network sitcom to their portfolio. Simmons is, like LeBron, repped by Rich Paul and the two have a pretty close bond, even though it wasn’t enough to convince James to join Simmons with the Sixers this summer.
LeBron and Simmons were recently seen running the court together at one of the infamous “Black Ops” pickup games in NYC, giving us a small taste of what might’ve been had they teamed up in Philadelphia.
The future sitcom is just the latest in a long line of media ventures LeBron has been linked with. The barbershop-themed talk show called “The Shop” premiered on HBO earlier this month, and a new documentary, Shut Up and Dribble, is currently in production for Showtime.
