Christian Segovia/Fourth Estate

A review of Netflix’s recent documentary ‘Starting 5′

BY CHRISTIAN SEGOVIA, ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Netflix released a 10-episode NBA documentary called “Starting 5” focusing on five players during the NBA 2023-2024 season: Lebron James, Anthony Edwards, Jimmy Butler, Jayson Tatum and Domantas Sabonis.

How the documentary focused on each of the players’ stories throughout the season made the series enjoyable.These stories ranged from the specific goals of each player to focusing on injuries, families and backgrounds that will make non-basketball fans become captivated. For non-basketball fans, the series even gave information about each player and the NBA. 

What I loved about LeBron James’ season is how he still wants to give it his all on the floor despite playing for 21 seasons. He finds time to spend with his family and, in the documentary, we get to see the goofy side of James. An amazing part about James is his basketball IQ, especially when explaining to his teammates what the other team is going to do and what he needs his team to do defensively.

Following Jayson Tatum’s season, which included an NBA championship, I appreciated Tatum’s mindset. He is willing to prove someone wrong if they think he couldn’t do something. During the NBA Finals, Tatum was willing to sacrifice his part of the game when it required his teammates to be more involved to avoid dropping 30 points in a game. His sacrifice got the Celtics their 18th banner for Boston.

While watching the series, it felt like we only saw Tatum a few times throughout the documentary and there was some rushing in his storyline with him winning an NBA championship. Although, in the playoffs, it was cool to see the players go against other players that weren’t from the “Starting 5” but I wish we got more of that.

The aftermath of Jimmy Butler’s season with the Miami Heat was emotional. Butler’s injuries kept him rested so he didn’t damage his body but if it was an important game, he would fight through the injury. He dealt with the loss of his dad during the season, explained the struggles of losing someone you love and used basketball as an escape.

Seeing his season throughout the documentary taught people that athletes are human, too. They have stuff going on behind the scenes that people don’t see often. Seeing this reminded me that sometimes people can forget they are more than just basketball players. 

Going into Anthony Edwards’ season, I was expecting more of Edwards’ ego as a player; however, I finished the documentary knowing Edwards is young figuring out life while having a baby with his girlfriend. He still doesn’t care who he faces every night on the basketball court but I wouldn’t be surprised if he becomes the face of the league in a few years.

For Domantas Sabonis’ season, it was amazing to see his leadership skills develop with the Sacramento Kings. The microphone picks up Sabonis talking to his teammates about when to move, where to be on the court and when to be ready for him to pass to them. Through all of his battles in the season, he showed his toughness.

The documentary shoots good angles of the players when they are on the court. Letting viewers see how tired these athletes are after a game ends and how they prep for the next game while highlighting what they do in their free time afterward.

I feel the documentary did miss its chance to dig into how players do film reviews against other teams and see how seriously they take their practices. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the documentary and would rate it an overall four out of five and look forward to season two.