The NBA star takes on an unusual new role in a shaggy new series imagining what would have happened to his less successful childhood friend
Given the crop of current NBA stars, casting Steph Curry as the leading man in a network sitcom is a radical choice. Rising star Anthony Edwards is a bigger personality. Reigning MVP Nikola Jokic is a better straight man. Klay Thompson, Curry’s former Splash Brother, is a situational comedy unto himself – as apt to turn up in an man-on-the-street TV news interview about New York City scaffolding as laugh at his online mimics.
Nevertheless, it’s Curry who is the star and executive producer of Mr Throwback – a new Peacock series that seems a piece of a larger strategy at NBC Universal to retain its outsized Olympics audience, snatch back its TV comedy crown from Disney (home of Abbott Elementary) and recapture some of its old Thursday-night swagger. It’s also somewhat of a teaser for the 2025-26 NBA season, when NBC will carry games again after a 23-year hiatus. NBC’s rights deal effectively pushes Warner Bros Discovery to the sidelines and would seem to spell the end of Inside the NBA, the standard in basketball comedy.
