Entertainment

Spencer Has Serious Money Problems On 'Ballers'

by Keertana Sastry

Despite looking like Entourage with football, HBO's new series Ballers is surprisingly entertaining and has original elements. Created by Steve Levinson and produced by Mark Wahlberg (like Entourage), Ballers follows Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Spencer Strasmore, a former NFL player who has landed a job at a financial management company. He gets the job for his contacts and has yet to deliver on clients, which is doubly unfortunate for his career and because Spencer is strapped for cash. To make matters worse, he lends money to a friend hoping to sign him as a client but he doesn't even have $200 dollars to spend. But it doesn't seem like all hope is lost; Spencer has a new client in the form of Ricky Jerret, an NFL player who gets a spot on the Miami Dolphins thanks to Spencer's help. Ricky hires Spencer to manage him money (which is funny given the circumstances), but can Spencer really rely on Ricky to save him from possible financial ruin? Considering his actions in the pilot alone, Ricky really can't be trusted with his career enough to give any funds to Spencer.

In the series premiere, Ricky is caught in a sex scandal and is dropped from his original team's roster, and getting a job again proves to be a little tricky at first given his personality and antics. Ricky claims to be a very spiritual, godly man who also loves family, but clearly his sex scandal proves his piousness comes and goes. Plus he's rather obnoxious in general.

Then there's the matter of him not being able to listen to instructions. When Spencer tells him to get to the meeting with the Miami Dolphins coach on time — because the coach is all about punctuality — he's still late, albeit by one minute. Despite the coach leaving Ricky at the dock as he sails away on his boat, Ricky waits for him to come back which impresses him enough to give Ricky a spot. Of course just because he's been given a second chance, it doesn't mean everyone automatically trusts him to do a great job and not get in any more trouble. In fact, he's considering "scum" by many people in the football league. Spencer has quite the task in front of him if he wants to manage Ricky's money and get some for himself, and it's going to be quite the entertaining ride.

Images: Gene Page/HBO