Shooting Stars trailer: The story of LeBron James’ meteoric rise hits the hardwood in Peacock’s new sports drama

It’s not how you start the game. It’s how you finish. Peacock is taking it to the hoop today with the Shooting Stars trailer, depicting LeBron James‘s meteoric rise from the high school basketball court to becoming one of the greatest players ever to play the game. Shooting Stars is based on the book by LeBron James and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Friday Night Lights, Buzz Bissinger. According to today’s official press release, Shooting Stars “is the inspiring origin story of a basketball superhero, revealing how LeBron James and his childhood friends become the #1 high school team in the country, launching James’s breathtaking career as a four-time NBA Champion, two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.”

Here’s the official synopsis:

In the 1990s, a young LeBron James (Marquis “Mookie” Cook, in his screen debut) and his three best friends — Lil Dru (Caleb McLaughlin, Stranger Things), Willie McGee (Avery S. Wills, Jr., Swagger), and Sian Cotton (Khalil Everage, Cobra Kai)—called themselves the “Fab Four,” after the famed Michigan Wolverines’ “Fab Five” of that era. From the moment we meet them, we realize this group of friends, under the guidance of coach Dru Joyce (Wood Harris; Creed franchise), is connected by more than basketball.

So, when the coach at the top basketball school in their district threatens to separate them by putting Lil Dru on junior varsity, the Fab Four decide to switch schools to be able to play varsity together, joining the team at a predominantly white Catholic school instead. The community takes this as an insult, but the boys’ dedication to each other is more important than anything else.

With their new coach (Dermot Mulroney; August: Osage County), a disgraced former college coach seeking redemption of his own, the boys, along with former rival and new teammate Romeo Travis (newcomer Sterling “Scoot” Henderson), will face battles not only on the court but in real life, in their quest to become national champs, and will rediscover that what matters most about the game is the people playing beside you.

Chris Robinson (Beats, Grown-ish) directs Shooting Stars from a screenplay by Frank E. Flowers and Tony Rettenmaier (Space Jam: New Legacy).

LeBron James’ legacy is the stuff of legend, and experiencing the journey from the superstar’s own perspective is something I’m sure fans would love to see. Robinson is uniquely positioned to tell one of basketball’s most inspiring stories. Let’s hope Shooting Stars is a slam dunk.