NBA legend Jerry West, who passed away earlier this week at age 86, objected to his portrayal in Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, saying it was “cruel” and “deliberately false.”  Which is totally how the Jerry West played by Jason Clarke in the show would have reacted.

The Showtime era of Lakers basketball, led by Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and coach Pat Riley, featured an up-tempo offense and resulted in five NBA championships and four additional Finals appearances.  Winning Time, with a changed name because its home network of HBO competed against Showtime, dramatized the early days of the era, starting with the drafting of Johnson and the first championship won during his rookie season of 1979-1980.  A second season, covering the next four NBA campaigns, aired starting in August of 2023.

With Kareem retiring in 1989 and Pat Riley stepping down as coach the following year, the Showtime era came to a close in 1991, following a Finals loss to Michael Jordan and the Bulls and Magic Johnson retiring after testing positive for HIV later that year.  Winning Time came to an end in September of 2023, when HBO announced it was cancelling the series after just two seasons.