How Trishtan Williams Made ‘Starting 5’ The Realest Series In Sports

No one could have predicted the powerful moments that would occur during the second season of Starting 5. The inside look at five of basketball’s brightest stars—Jaylen Brown, Kevin Durant, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Tyrese Haliburton, and James Harden—evolved into one of the most emotionally charged portraits of the modern NBA.

Guiding this season is director Trishtan Williams, whose résumé spans everything from The Amazing Race to Love Is Blind. For her, Starting 5 represents the sweet spot where competition, character, and culture intersect. “The more intimate scenes are what viewers love—those real, raw moments when their worlds collide,” Williams said. Across eight episodes, she and her team sifted through hundreds of hours of footage, weaving together one of the greatest stories ever told.

Produced by UNINTERRUPTED in association with Omaha Productions and Higher Ground, Season 2 marks a turning point not only for the series but also for the sport itself. The show juxtaposes veterans like Durant and Harden, who carry the wisdom and wear of a generation, with the ascendant energy of Gilgeous-Alexander and Haliburton, signaling the NBA’s ongoing “changing of the guard.” Meanwhile, Brown emerges as the league’s intellectual conscience: disciplined, grounded, and quietly revolutionary in how he defines success.

With Williams at the helm, Starting 5 transcends the traditional sports documentary. It’s a study in the evolving image of the modern athlete. With the new season hitting Netflix, ESSENCE caught up with the auteur to discuss the art of storytelling through basketball, and how she turned a year of chaos, injury, and triumph into must-see television.

ESSENCE: I’m really excited about the second season of Starting 5. How did you want to expand on the series this year compared to what you did in the first season? 

Trishtan Williams: I think we learned more so not just the expansion of it, but just how to film it better and to tell the story better. Those are all growing pains and things you go through in any first season of any show. It’s hard because it’s the first of something, and so you’re just trying to figure out the bearings and what that should look like for the viewers. Once we had that under our belt, next is understanding that the more intimate scenes are what viewers love—those real raw moments when their worlds collide. I think that part of the algorithm made sense to help drive the story in terms of expanding on the narrative.

I know it’s not, but it’s like there’s some type of script. These subjects are just perfect.

I mean, we are just lucky. I call it TV magic. I think we got some extra special golden dust that’s happening. We would’ve never thought one: that you get Shai for OKC and Halliburton, in the Finals. I don’t think anybody in the world would’ve thought that. So definitely not scripted, and so it just worked out in our favor just to have a great ending that way and have the characters that we have.

Talk to me more about having Shai and Tyrese as part of this season.

So I think when it comes to Shai, people don’t know who Shai is, right? So when you’re doing your initial research, the boy could dress his butt off and you are like, “where is this coming from? Who are you and why are you so good at this? And are you better at this than a basketball player?” So you learn those things about him, and you learn about his family because he never really speaks. It was really cool to be intimate with him that way. It’s funny because my son was the one that pushed for me to get Shai, and he was one-hundred percent right.

When it comes to Haliburton—people have to remember Haliburton was doing so well already, and the Pacers went deep in the playoffs. However, this season started off so slow. But that’s the great thing for the story too, because you get that rollercoaster in the ebb and flow of Shai, and you want to see him win it and he’s such a great person—you want to see him get over that hump. And with Haliburton, you’re excited for him because his team started off so bad and then they ended up making it to the Finals. It is just a beautiful story, and I’m really proud of this season. 

One of the important themes of this season is the changing of the guard in the NBA. You’ve got KD and James Harden, who are still playing at a high level but are approaching the last years of their career. And then you have Shai, Haliburton, and Jaylen Brown who they’re all ascending. How did you approach capturing that generational shift on camera? 

It was really nice. So when you’re thinking about KD and James Harden, you have the original origin for OKC and that’s a great story. And then now you have this young guy who was now with OKC, so you get to tell the old OKC story along with the new OKC story in the big three when KD, James, and Russ, couldn’t do it. Now, there’s this new kid and his young team—can they do it? So when you get that level of backstory and then can transition into this new story, that’s a strong story off top when it comes to the OKC origin and then naturally when it comes to Jaylen Brown, who is part of the defending champs—and we had Jayson Tatum last season.

So when you think about KD, James, and the changing of the guard, how special is it to get James and KD in the same season who are really good friends who’ve played with each other on multiple teams? And you get to get that backstory of what actually happened when it comes to going to Houston. From James’s point of view, when it comes to then going to Brooklyn, and the 76ers. It’s great because he’s never been the person to combat the narratives or get back at the media.

There’s also this “dream team” in terms of your partnership. You’ve got Uninterrupted Omaha productions and Higher Ground. What did each of those entities bring to the creative process this time around? 

Well, they give us the autonomy and the freedom to be creative. So I think that’s the best partnership because they trust us to do what we do. When you get into the editing process, you have all of these brilliant minds who see things differently, which is really great. Most times if everybody is aligned here, then that’s the answer, which is an easy answer. I think that’s the cool thing about having all of these amazing partners because everybody has a different perspective. But when everybody is on the same page, this is the goal.

All of these figures are interesting, but the person that intrigues me the most is Jaylen Brown. What was it like working with him? Is there something that you learned about him when you were filming this season? 

Jaylen Brown’s story is one of my favorite stories. He is so undermined—I guess that’s the best word to say—so, you can appreciate him. I’m a mother of a 16-year-old, and if I’m looking for my kid to have a role model or somebody that they could follow just as an intellectual, that’s Jaylen. So what I learned is that what he’s saying isn’t for play, this is real. His mother speaks about it and how he didn’t purchase a car and how he saves his money, and he really doesn’t have an agency, he doesn’t have this large team, but he truly educated himself to navigate the business without having all of these extra percentages that need to go out and understanding what that really looked like.

Half of these athletes once they finish, they’re only sitting on a certain amount of capital because most of it is going out to so many things. So I just learned that you can balance this world, you really can. What I also learned is that he’s not as boring as people want to make him out to be. He’s a really fun guy and he has personality, but you can’t overlook the sacrifices that he’s made. So, his story will come full circle when the viewers watch it. They’re going to be in love with Jaylen for sure. 

There were several amazing moments with this series, and the spontaneity is really special. But with so many moving parts, how is the schedule with everyone set up?

It’s not predetermined at all. So, everyone who is on our team literally just has to be committed and dedicated and know that your personal life is going to be on hold. When you think about just even the holidays, right? You’re not spending the holidays with your family on Thanksgiving or Christmas. You’re missing so many moments, valuable moments, and it’s not scheduled. You try to schedule as much as possible, even on their side, if we have an interview scheduled and they need to cancel or push, guess what? You need to pivot a little bit and make some adjustments and then whatever you thought you were doing on the day that they can film. So this schedule could shift. Communication is really important. 

Was there any particular moment that moved you personally this season at all?

There is one particular moment that moved me and as a director in the moment. This is with James Harden, where you have to get your talent to trust you because our guys are very private and not just our guys, but James in particular, as I stated earlier, he doesn’t tell anybody anything. No one knows his business. So, in this moment when the surprise that the world will see is happening, I was shocked once because I didn’t know. Then you have to figure out creatively, how do we go about filming this and how do I get you to trust me and know that we’re going to do it elegantly in a manner that’s tasteful for you and you’re comfortable with.

TOPICS:  NBA Trishtan Williams

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