NBA Champion Iman Shumpert Details His New Show ‘Taking One For The Team’ And His Transition Into Entertainment

Iman Shumpert has a new TV series on his hands.

The 34-year-old is known for a lot of things, including his 10-year NBA career that included a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers. That’s not even mentioning his win on Season 30 of “Dancing With The Stars,” becoming the first basketball player to win the well-known dancing competition.

However, this time around, Shumpert will be taking on full-time host duties of a new series on ESPN+ called “Taking One For The Team.” The show will premiere on Oct. 16 with a batch of episodes on both ESPN+ and Hulu.

The description of the show is simple — athletes tell untold stories of the hilarious sacrifices they make for their teams. It’s a behind-the-scenes look for fans who have never heard these stories and each episode is no longer than 15 minutes long.

Shumpert is featured as the voice of the show with the show blending humor and animation of telling these untold stories. One of the more prominent guests of the first season is none other than two-time Super Bowl champion Ahmad Bradshaw, who was a member of the teams that defeated the New England Patriots during the 2007 and 2011 seasons. The first season also features former Giants receiver Hakeem Nicks and Matthew Judon, who currently plays for the Atlanta Falcons.

“Taking One For The Team is the best collection of stories,” explains Shumpert in an exclusive one-on-one interview. “You always get an NFL story — it’s either a championship story or hero moment — that’s all the stuff you can get off of Google. What this series does is dive into that story that didn’t get told, that embarrassing moment that happened.”

The former NBA veteran explains what his role is on the show as the voice of “Taking One For The Team.”

“They gave me a chance to be a character, because I’m just an animated voice that’s running you through it all,” explains Shumpert. “Which has been cool, because ever since starting my podcast, I totally don’t mind just being a voice. I don’t have to be seen on the camera. I think it’s even cooler to animate me, gives me a wider ranger to act with my voice reflection.”

Shumpert goes into further detail of what makes “Taking One For The Team” such a unique show that you won’t find anywhere else.

“What the crowd is doing at the moment, all the things that are happening in your favorite moment, and putting you back in that moment only to tell you what really happened,” says Shumpert. “This was all a mistake, this was an accident, and they won a championship. But they took one for the team, because the play was originally supposed to be for this person over here and now we didn’t run it because we just had to win. It’s just always giving you that gem.”

CEO of Orchard Operations Dez White explains how the show came together and why she hand-picked Shumpert to be the host of the show. Although Shumpert has had brief forays into hosting, this is his first full-time gig as a show host.

“I was driving with my sons listening to their sports stories,” explains White. “I come from a family of sports fans, and I’ve made my name in TV with first account digital series. When I got home I thought… there has to be a show like what I am thinking out… And there wasn’t! From there, ‘Taking One for the Team’ was born.

Iman had done an episode of a show I had on BET called ‘Blew a Bag.’ On that show, I was able to see first hand how dynamic he was. I saw Iman’s podcast and thought he had a very comical personality. When we spoke to Iman, he got the show. From the first meeting it was a fit.”

Shumpert explains that another appeal of the show are athletes showing their vulnerable side when they’re so accustomed to bringing an intimidation factor when it comes to competing.

“As athletes, we’re always so serious in the face,” says Shumpert. “We get tensed up all the time, so it’s cool to be able to see these guys — that are supposed to give off this intimidation factor — and how they’re just smiling and telling stories and are having a good time.”

The former shooting guard has been keeping busy in his post-NBA career, appearing as an actor in TV shows such as “Them” and “The Chi.” That’s not even mentioning how he has dabbled in rap music, releasing an album in 2018. Although Shumpert had a notable basketball career, he reveals that his transition into the entertainment world has not been difficult — unlike many athletes.

“It’s been cool,” says Shumpert. “I’ve had my same team the whole time I’ve been a professional and they transitioned over with. A lot of the things that I was doing, I was doing simultaneously while playing. It didn’t feel awkward, trying stuff or doing anything as far as getting booked.

Life without basketball, the plus, I don’t have any injuries. The negative, you get the itch. There’s times where you’re getting shots up and you get in these modes of, ‘Why am I not on a team?’ You get into those spells, but it’s just the competitive nature of what I’m used to.”

Shumpert details that he’s always been encouraged to do things outside of basketball. Because he never just focused on one thing, he didn’t exactly go “cold turkey” like a lot of athletes in their post-career transition.

“I know people sometimes take an initial shock, but I think it’s because they go cold turkey with focusing only on one thing and then taking that away from them completely — that’s tough for anybody,” says Shumpert. “It’s an adjustment period. I had so many things that I was used to doing simultaneously that it didn’t feel that bad and I still play basketball whenever I want to.”