Nearly 10 years ago, ABC commissioned a half-hour sitcom pilot based on the Golden State Warriors but that’s more to do with one of their players (at least in the fictional world). His name is Mo Gosego (Blondy Baruti’s first acting gig apparently), who barely understands a single thing both speaking English & playing Basketball, so they’ve hired a translator for him named Jason – the high school language teacher. Jason is portrayed by Skyler Astin from the Pitch Perfect film franchise & also recently starred in CBS’s So Help Me Todd from 2022-24.
This player is such a colossal giant who stands at two metres tall when he first arrived at the San Francisco Bay Area from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa – not exactly the journey that the late Dikembe Mutombo did a long time ago at age 21 from wanting to be a doctor to legendary NBA player – when the little kid was looking for the little blue ball after he dropped it down & Mo was standing as if he was the team’s Great Wall of China with a huge smile on his face.
Cue that intro right there….
All he does though is just running around not knowing what he was doing while doing a hell lot other stuff that isn’t to do with Basketball at all. Here’s a list on his moments of action below:
- He’s kinda obsessed with Game of Thrones when it comes to that satellite dish reference after his translator Jason puked during Mo’s first press conference;
- Him singing a song in front of his team-mates dressed in a unicorn (that didn’t go well by the way);
- Went on a day trip at Alcatraz and came back home in prison clothes along with eating a bread bowl of soup;
- Watched a video of cows making noises on his laptop with his translator Jason the night before game day after they talked about Vince Diesel (yes, the Hollywood actor named Vin Diesel), having realised how tough was life living in America compared to Congo despite his language barriers barely speaking most English;
- And he even punched his team-mate Derek in Jason’s defense when Mo found out that Derek tied Jason onto a wall-mounted hoop with duct tape and he wasn’t very happy about it while the Warriors would have lost the game by now already.
From Jason’s part, he still lives with his parents who also ran into trouble a few times much like his translator Mo. Yes, his relationship with his mom Bonnie is still close & supportive like those Ally McBeal nights they enjoyed a long time ago back in eighth grade according to his dad.
But then his dad really wanted Jason to get a real job to live a real adult life that would mean also not trying to get back with Bridget (Caitlin Thompson) when she already have moved on with someone.
Speaking of her portrayer, didn’t see much of Caitlin Thompson at all other than the photos Bridget had with Jason back in Africa, but interestingly enough Caitlin’s husband Dan Fogleman was actually one of the executive producers for that project.
Also, love how Warriors GM Don (Ving Rhames) was being tough on him every time he tries to touch a thing or two including the cheerleaders, as well as being advised about Mo’s $10K fine post-game following his punch against Derek as said above. Looks like Jason was firing him up but this is ain’t boxing as wrong contest & also wrong man too.
At the end of the day though, it’s all about just the two of us in both Jason and his translator Mo. From there, they walked into the press conference together as if they’re having a bromance already to talk about the trouble Mo’s been making not even before a minute of game time at the former Oakland Arena. Ironically, Warriors have since moved to the Chase Center in San Fran a few years later in 2019.
Maybe if that NBA sitcom project has been renamed with the title that isn’t much to do with the Golden State Warriors & more on them representing Golden State, then ABC might be able to give this a three-point shot towards the hoops. I mean, like what a brilliant funny story could’ve been if Mo was able to eventually learn his way towards being a star NBA player with the help of Jason – that would’ve give us such a big clue if Golden State was approved to become a full series order.
But then some things from what we saw from this plot just doesn’t make sense or out of line unfortunately despite having a few laughs at times. As said, if they did a hell lot of training & all other fun scenes together other than that one little bit on the night before game day while laughing at zebra noises back in Africa, they should’ve said yes.
They’ve made the right decision though and if you can’t get enough of Jason & Mo when time flies so fast, watch it while you can below.
