Reminiscing on watching Kobe Bryant’s games and highlights on YouTube, Jayson Tatum recalls telling a teacher that he wanted to be in the NBA one day. She told him to “be more realistic,” and his mother, Brandy Cole-Barnes, made sure he remembered the moment for the day he’d prove that naysayer wrong. For Tatum, a major appeal of being in Starting 5 was that it allowed him to pull back the curtain on who he really was. “I wanted to give fans an inside look at my life, something I had never really done before,” he says. “I knew it would be big.” Tatum adds that folks might not realize what it takes to be an NBA player. “The mental aspect is just as demanding as the physical aspect,” he says. “It’s never getting too high or too low, while holding myself to the highest standard. That is my job, but the perspective is knowing that my most important role is being a dad. I think the series does a great job showing the balance we have to maintain in our lives.”

Learn more about Starting 5 here.