Ballers – Seeds of Expansion

By: Angel Martin

Our previous season of “Ballers” ended with Spencer (Dwayne Johnson) spiraling straight down the rabbit hole to smack rock bottom. His poor money handling had created a financial mess and he started to see the “snake in the grass” that he warned young players about. Unfortunately, he saw him when he looked in the mirror. In a bid to pull himself up, Spencer borrowed money from friends to buy in to ASA, with Anderson at the helm. The question will be if he can turn himself around and work with Anderson.

Season Three premiered with its usual bright and shining vistas of Miami, complete with sparkling water, beautiful homes and just your average pickup game between friends. Spencer and Ricky (John David Washington) – among others- show some serious talent in the arena of basketball…and in their apparent inability to complete a single sentence without stringing together every four letter word that fills out their vocabulary.  And as nice as it is to watch Dwayne Johnson hop around and show us all his athleticism, one does have to wonder at the energy they all seem to expend avoiding real dialogue.  Perhaps the players’ weights could be replaced with copies of Webster’s? That way, they can expand their vocabulary beyond that of a punk kid pretending they are tough guys, while doing arm curls.

As the game wound down, Spencer and Ricky wander inside to discuss the bombshell that Ricky might just need to add a nursery to his opulent home as Amber (Brittany S. Hall) says she might be pregnant, but she stopped returning his calls.  He isn’t sure what he thinks about being a dad and it makes Spencer wonder why he hasn’t encountered that particular problem before. With a shrug, Ricky suggests that maybe it hasn’t been an issue because he can’t father kids.  The conversation quickly turns to the loan that Ricky made to Spencer. He had been promised a return on the loan in full within the first year of the five million dollars he handed over. Without being overly pushy, Ricky reminds him that he has three months before that dead line approaches and Spencer promises him that he will deliver.

Back in the office Joe (Rob Corddry) and Spencer get interrupted by a phone call from Stephen Curry (the actual basketball player). Curry had made plans to go play in the islands and wanted Spencer to fly out with him and his girl. Unfortunately, Spencer is all tapped out and had to turn him down, but asked if Curry would be able to sit down with him to discuss ASA at dinner. With a promise for dinner, Spencer hangs up and heads for a conversation with Mr. Anderson.

Mr. Anderson (Richard Schiff) leads the conversation with his plans to have dinner with Wayne Hastings Jr, played by the fabulous Steve Guttenberg. Hastings Jr. is the big fish that Mr. Anderson just cannot seem to hook. He is a big deal casino man and Mr. Anderson has been chasing a deal with the Hastings family, just like his father tried (and failed) to do in the past. Instantly, the look on Spencer’s face shows that he does not think it is a good idea. He tells Mr. Anderson that he doesn’t think gambling and Athletes mix and, considering the number of examples he has to choose from, he is not wrong. It’s hard enough to throw that much money at someone who’s idea of work is to kick, punt or throw a ball down a field of grass. Add the glitz and glamour of gambling to double or triple those numbers and it is a recipe for disaster.

Mr. Anderson wants Spencer to come to dinner and meet with Hastings, but Spencer argues that he already has plans with Stephen Curry. Unfortunately, with the prospect of getting his hands on a piece of the gaming world, Mr. Anderson is not interested in Curry. Spencer reminds him that they are in the sports business and Stephen Curry is a 2 time MVP- he would add values to ASA. With a sigh, Mr. Anderson makes a concession (WOW, maybe these two can work together without it coming to blows). He agrees to help Spencer; if Spencer will use his considerable charms to close Hastings, then he, in turn, will help close Curry. The discussion ends with Mr. Anderson hinting that Spencers’ goals don’t come close to the big plans that he has for ASA. It’ll be interesting to see what else he thinks he can turn a sports related business into, especially since he wants to mix in the gaming business- it could be a one stop shop: get rich and go broke all in one place.

Meanwhile, Jack Moore runs into Charles, carrying his desk in a box.  Mr. Siefert just gave him his walking papers. With a shake of his head before he leaves, he warns Charles (Omar Benson Miller) that it was odd for Siefert to pick Charles out of the blue and put him in the front office. When Jack leaves, Charles heads in to talk to Mr. Siefert. After waiting all day in the outer office, he goes in to find out if there are things he should know.  Siefert tells him no, there isn’t anything.  And if Charles has ever had a thought in his head, that would have been a good time for it to materialize and start screaming, “Lies!” But, that thought was diverted, when Charles is handed a set of talking points and shunted out to do a press conference; and the look on Charles’ face was plenty of proof that the press conference would be an absolute train wreck.

Around town and getting tired of having his calls ignored, Ricky goes to see Amber and demands to know if she is pregnant.  After some truly bad posturing, from both sides, she tells him no and challenges him to say he would have “stepped up” if she were pregnant with his child. More huffing and chest beating occurs before they both flip the switch and start proclaiming that they love each other and fall back into bed together….with Ricky visibly relieved that he wasn’t a father. Unfortunately for him, after getting tangled up in the sheets again, he admits that he would have taken care of Amber and a child. Amber admits that she lied. Congratulations, Ricky…it’s a soon to be a bouncing baby. And the look on his face showed just how thrilled he was…Pretty sure if there were a rocket to Mars, he would have bought a ticket.  Guess that was his first lesson on “actions have consequences” or he just skipped all his sex-ed classes.

With his previous conversation still stuck in his mind, Spencer decides to ask his doctor about getting some tests done to find out if he could father children. She sets up an appointment, which he is CLEARLY not comfortable with, but his future progeny are forgotten with two phone calls. The first, his very apologetic secretary letting him know that Stephen Curry cancelled on him……again. The second, Mr. Anderson with the news that Hastings was so excited that he would be meeting Curry at dinner. Oops. Spencer explains that Curry cancelled, but Mr. Anderson does not want to hear it. He wants Hastings buttered up and happy. Meeting Stephen Curry got him excited so he HAD to be there. When Spencer tells him that he does not think he can get Curry there, Mr. Anderson sweetens the deal. If he can deliver a player, to dazzle Hastings, then he would pay off all of Spencer’s loan debts to his friends. With that idea in mind, Spencer starts to look for anyone to take until Joe points out that Spencer, himself, is still an asset. He has drawing power and he should just go himself and impress Hastings.

Enter Wayne Hastings Jr! At dinner Hastings wastes no time talking to Spencer about dreaming big. He clearly is unimpressed with Mr. Anderson, having known that he and his father tried many times to buy into the Las Vegas Gaming business. During dinner, high above the lights of the city, he and his guests put on a truly spectacular display of faux piety, playing a game of “What are we each grateful for” and Spencer showed that he could still dazzle. He talked about growing up with nothing and his life expectancy before discovering football. He talked about how grateful he was to be given the chances that he had and the chances he continued to get from Mr. Anderson.  And with perfect timing, Hastings raises his glass to such a grateful man, proclaiming that he is grateful for “real men” like Spencer, who worked for the life they had….something he would know nothing about.

With dinner passed, Spencer takes a moment on the balcony when Hastings joins him. He knew that Spencer was working hard to push for his boss. But, as Hastings told him, he didn’t need Mr. Anderson. He brought nothing to the table. His father knew that before him and he knows it now. With a smile, he asks Spencer what Mr. Anderson has and Spencer answers that sports rule the world. Despite a rather crude rejoinder to the assertion, Spencer turns and gives him one more idea to think about. Ending the episode, Spencer asks Hastings, “How would you like to bring an NFL team to Las Vegas?”

And while Hastings was intrigued by the idea, it is doubtful that Mr. Anderson will be pleased with Spencer bringing that idea to what he previously thought would be HIS chance at the table.

But, hey, Mr. Anderson wanted Spencer to think big…right?