“Swagger,” the Apple TV Plus drama centered in the world of youth basketball, boasts an impressive pedigree with storylines drawn from the formative experiences of NBA standout Kevin Durant. But the series is anything but a TV-scaled biopic; its ambitions are decidedly bigger and more far-reaching than even the 6-foot-10-inch superstar.

“The approach was not ‘Let’s fit into Kevin’s life.’ The approach was, ‘Use Kevin’s life as a point of inspiration,’” creator and executive producer Reggie Rock Bythewood, whose long, versatile list of writing and directing credits include the limited series “Shots Fired” and the “30 for 30” documentary “One Night in Vegas,” tells Variety.

By using elements of Durant’s backstory as the foundation for a more contemporary tale about Jace (Isaiah Hill), a disadvantaged teen with undeniable potential to become an elite athlete, Bythewood envisioned a broader framework to explore more immediate topics and themes.