Steve Nash, who retired from the NBA earlier this year, is developing a youth basketball drama for the CBC network in Canada.
The former Los Angeles Lakers point guard’s Meathawk Productions has teamed with fellow Canadian indie producer Insight Productions on Hardwood (working title), about a big-city entrepreneur who opens an elite youth basketball academy in a sleepy farming town outside of Toronto.
Hardwood is the latest series developed or produced for the CBC by Los Angeles-based talent after Black-ish star Catherine Reitman created and will star in a comedy for the public broadcaster, Workin‘ Moms, and Eugene Levy and his son, Daniel Levy, had their own sitcom, Schitt’s Creek, renewed for a second season on the CBC.
Nash will executive produce Hardwood, with creator Skander Halim (Pretty Persuasion, 18 To Life) writing the pilot. “Being a teenager is difficult enough, but add to that a bright spotlight, the countless dubious characters, the expectations and pitfalls of the recruiting process and it can be a toxic mix,” Nash said in a statement on Monday.
“But it’s also one of the most exciting times of a player’s life, when anything is possible. Hardwood is going to explore this world, and all the highs and lows that come with it,” he added. Toronto-based Insight Productions recently opened a Los Angeles development office, headed up by Shannon Farr, vp and supervising producer.
Executive producer credits on Hardwood will be shared by Nash, Halim, Ezra Holland, John Brunton and Barbara Bowlby. Farr is the supervising producer.
