Ballers (stylized as ballers) was an American Comedy Drama following Spencer Strasmore (Dwayne Johnson), a former NFL player in his new career as a financial manager and dealing with American Football players and their friends, family, and entourages.
The show also featured Rob Corddry, John David Washington, Omar Benson Miller, London Brown, Troy Garity, and Jazmyn Simon.
The series aired on HBO for five seasons between 2015 and 2019.
Tropes for the series:
- Celebrity Paradox:
- It's not necessarily canonical, but the title sequence shows Dwayne "The Rock' Johnson in his playing days at the university of Miami - though this could be easily explained away as footage of Spencer’s college football days.
- The season 5 premiere begins with Johnson's character reading The Flight is Our Fight by Elizabeth Warren... a book in which, on the very first page, the TV show itself is mentioned.
- Dare to Be Badass: The motive for most of the characters.
- Everyone Went to School Together: Ricky, Charles and Julie all went to University of Miami at the same time.
- Fanservice: Almost every other scene features a beautiful woman in a bikini, lingerie, or just straight up topless/naked.
- On the other side, there's also more than a few shots of muscular men with their shirts off, including the Rock.
- Happily Adopted: In the episode "Ride and Die," Spencer starts to tell Joe a story about his father.Joe: What, your real dad or your adopted dad?
Spencer: Asshole, my adopted dad is my real dad.
Joe: Good, I didn't want to hear a story about you searching for your biological father. - Jerkass Has a Point: When Spencer comes back from a friend's funeral, his partner asks him if he was able to sign up anyone and says that funerals are a great place to get clients as attendees are often reevaluating their life choices. Spencer is pretty uncomfortable at this but, as his boss points out, his friend died bankrupt and left his wife and son with nothing, which wouldn't have happened if they had been taking care of his finances.
- Money Dumb: Spencer Strasmore is a former NFL football player who was hit by this trope during his days as a sports star. He earned a lot of money but he put most of it into stupid investments and had the rest embezzled by crooked managers. When an injury forced to retire from football he found himself with very little money. Learning from his mistakes, he got a job at a financial management company that handles money for sports stars. As a financial manager it is his job to avert this trope on behalf of his clients who are earning millions but are prone to spending their money as fast as they receive it. Spencer has to go to great lengths to convince them to invest for the future so they do not repeat his mistakes.
- N-Word Privileges: At a party mostly for Black athletes, Spencer's very drunk and very white partner Joe yells "Let's get this party started my Niggaaaas!" They throw him in the sea.
- One-Word Title: Happens several times over the course of the series.
- Season 1: Pilot, Ends, Gaslighting, and Flamingos.
- Season 2: Elidee, and Saturdaze.
- Season 3: Crackback.
- Season 4: Doink.
- Season 5: Copernicursed, Municipal, Crumbs, and Edutainment.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Spencer, driving around town whilst happily singing along to "Take It Off" by Taylor Swift.
- Soft Water: Averted in a flashback in "Protocol Is for Losers." Spencer tells a story about how he was hurt jumping off a cliff into lake as a boy.
- Tagline: "Legends Don't Die. They Reinvent".
- Take That!:
- Season 4 has Spencer challenge the NCAA over their use and exploitation of college athletes, with Joe even directly calling the organisation corrupt.
- The final episodes of the series take aim at the NFL for not taking care of it's athletes following traumatic injuries that continue to hamper the living conditions of former players into their retirement.
