Skylar Astin very recently lost his job playing an ambitious money manager who falls in love with, of all things, a poor person on TBS’ Ground Floor. His situation has since improved, as Variety reports that he’s already landed a gig on an untitled ABC comedy set in the world of professional basketball from The Neighbors and Galavant creator Dan Fogelman. The project has the official support of the NBA, so ABC and Fogelman should be able to use real players and real team names.
The show, which may or may not eventually be called Shootin’ Hopes, is about “a non-English speaking rookie and a non-basketball speaking translator.” Astin will not play the non-English speaking rookie. He’ll be the other one, Jason, a sweet-tempered teaching assistant living with his parents who gets hired by the NBA to serve as a translator for a talented but lazy recruit from Botswana. Together, they will learn that winning isn’t everything, that friendship knows no nationality, that even short men can stand tall, stuff like that. Incidentally, Skylar Astin stands at 5’10’’ while most professional basketball players stand quite a bit taller, so that should look funny.