Fans of prestige TV and NBA drama may have been disappointed by HBO’s cancellation of Winning Time — but Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson wasn’t among them.
The five-time NBA champ, whose years as the face of the Showtime-era Lakers were at the center of the Adam McKay-produced series, recently told The Hollywood Reporter that he “never watched” the show because “nobody in this world can tell the Lakers story.”
He added, “The Showtime story? Nobody! Dr. [Jerry] Buss was way ahead of his time as an owner. Our team? Unbelievable! The Laker Girls with Paula Abdul? Unbelievable! Nobody can tell that story.”
Johnson, who was played by newcomer Quincy Isaiah on Winning Time, went on to say that his former teammates and associates also hadn’t seen the show, which ran for two seasons and bore the subtitle The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. “None of us watched it because it was fictional,” he said. “You just can’t tell that story. But, hey, that’s on them.”
Johnson, who played for the Lakers from 1979 to 1991 and again in 1996, previously criticized the show in an interview with Variety. “How are you gonna do it? You can’t do it,” he said. “So I don’t know what this stuff [Winning Time] is, I haven’t watched it, I’m not gonna watch it. And all the guys said the same thing. Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar], everybody. You can’t do it.”
Ahead of the series premiere last year, McKay correctly predicted the former Lakers’ displeasure with the project in an interview with EW. “We know that a bunch of them are not happy,” said. “For the first half of the [show’s run], I don’t think I’m going to be able to get Laker tickets. But I do hope they all hang in there with the show because we really are trying to respectfully tell their story.”
It’s worth noting that Johnson was initially involved with the development of the show, which was based on Jeff Pearlman’s book Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers. Series co-creator Jim Hecht recalled in a recent THR guest column that the production company Overbrook contacted Johnson about the project. “The next thing I knew, I was in a meeting with my childhood idol and he’s saying, ‘Yes, I wanna do this, this way, with you guys,'” Hecht wrote. “So, I dove right in and spent the next six months developing a take.”
Alas, Hecht said Johnson “backed out” after the first day of pitching the show. “I never heard from him directly, but I was told it was about money,” he added.
Among the others to criticize Winning Time for historical inaccuracies was fellow Lakers icon Jerry West, who demanded a retraction from the show for its “baseless portrayal” of him (as played by Jason Clarke).
On the other hand, Lakers president and controlling owner Jeanie Buss (played on Winning Time by Hadley Robinson) came around as a fan of the show and even appeared on its companion podcast. Her newlywed husband, Jay Mohr, also had a cameo in season 2.
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