Spencer Strasmore strolled out the office after handing his resignation letter to his partner Joe Krutel (Rob Corddry) like a hero. Just a regular day in the life of “Spencer the Spontaneous,” except his spontaneity is his bane.
A former NFL player who failed out of the league, chews pills like gums, can’t get anyone pregnant and changes girlfriends like an iPhone, a new one every season. His most recent, a high flying lawyer who as you might have guessed, he betrayed already.
When he was forced to retire from the game years before the events of the HBO hit series Ballers began, he gambled on the savings of fellow NFL player Terrell Suggs (played by Terrell Suggs) went against the advice of his former finance manager Andre Allen (Andy Garcia) and now sworn enemy and invested every single penny he owns in a real estate deal that could never have materialised.
Now hired by his biggest fan and leader of the “Association of Wannabes,” he takes the job to save his broke arse and becomes a finance manager himself. But it will take more than oversized Granpa suits to make Spencer look away from his reckless days. In the first season, he will stroll into the office at odd hours of the day, find it hard to actually sign anybody, party and make more friends with younger players for some weird reason and looks for ways to trick them into wanting to sign with him.
Spencer Starsmore hasn’t learnt anything. His gambling days are far from over and anyone who he comes across will surely perish under the weight of it. For starters; he has gambled yet again with 215 million dollars, given to him by Julian Anderson and Brett Anderson (the Anderson brothers) to get a shacky deal off the ground. He lobbied with funds from the Anderson brothers to build a stadium and when he was finally offered the opportunity, he threw it out the window. He convinced Brett Anderson (Richard Schiff) to invest in a full-on sports department that went south of course. He launched a fight with the NFL’s Candance Brewer (Emayatzy Corinealdi) after insinuating that her suit is too pink for him to engage with her and somehow, was the hero of that story. The best of the best con artist must offer libation on the feet of this Strasmore fella because his luck never runs out. He parades himself as the hero of the show but he was never a hero, to begin with.
Written by Stephen Levinson, Ballers is a vibrant tale and the best story I have ever seen about sports. For the athletes, some teenagers, many in their twenties and a few in their thirties, their talent is not for amusement as the fans and sports enthusiasts might think. It is their one true religion, the creed by which they live their lives. But Spencer Starsmore wants to take all that away from them because that his what he does. They don’t know it yet and even he would argue that his intentions are pure.
A brilliant representation of the old saying “the angel you don’t know…” or is Spencer the devil you do know? One thing is clear to me, however, Spencer, wonderfully played by a former athlete turn wrestler, turn actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, is the villain in this story and I have never for a second lost sight of that. You shouldn’t too.
This is what Spencer does. He swoops in very well aware of all his baggage and enemies in high places, as the nice guy who has got your back. Takes from you what he wants and bounce. He does it so well you might feel sorry for him after being conned by him.
Take Quincy Carter (Eli Goree), the high school son yet another ex. He without blinking gets the soon to be college undergrad to refuse all offers, claims he doesn’t want to sign him but yet strikes a deal worth 500 million dollars with him behind his mother’s back. Whereas, he arches a plan that will make him a billionaire by lobbying rights to get a television deal off his back. All hail Spencer the shameless!
The problem with Spencer’s love for silver is like everybody’s that love silver. It will never satisfy him. Spencer has got greed in his heart. He invests in a gen-z sport management company and fires the founder for stealing from him. He failed at tricking a high flying vegas finance advisor at being his pro bono surrogate. Despite his depression and drug addiction, Spencer has never been to rehab or seen a psychologist and he walks the street feeling fly with people’s money in his pocket, knowing fully well he is unstable and needs serious help.
With all of this, Spencer has landed a slot in the NFL Hall of Fame and he starts season 5 with the claim “football chose me”. After which he chats away about whether or not he will buy the Dallas Cowboys, a major football team with a team owner.
Perhaps, we should after all listen to Strassmore himself attempt to answer the question that we all have tried so desperately for five years to answer. What’s so special about him? I just got lucky.
The Frustrated Pan-African 