Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers

 

In 1979, the National Basketball Association’s revenue and attendance are dwindling. Dr. Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly), a chemist turned real estate tycoon, overextends himself to buy the once-proud Los Angeles Lakers with an eye on returning the team to its former glory. To do so, he plans on drafting Earvin “Magic” Johnson (Quincy Isaiah), a flashy 6’9” point guard coming off a college championship season, despite the presence of incumbent guard Norm Nixon (played by Nixon’s son Devaughn) and the reservations of the team’s coach, franchise legend Jerry West (Jason Clarke). Buss, never one to accept limits, has his bookkeeper mother Jessie (Sally Field) use a few accounting tricks to stay ahead of creditors and taps overlooked and underappreciated Claire Rothman (Gabby Hoffman) to increase stadium revenue. But will Buss’s pluck and Johnson’s talent be enough to overcome trouble on and off the court?

 

Adapted by Max Borenstein and Adam McKay from Jeff Pearlman’s nonfiction book Showtime, Winning Time (named such since it aired on HBO) is both wildly entertaining and wildly inaccurate. Take its abuse of dramatic license and occasionally uneven pacing out of the equation, and it’s a stylishly watchable production full of both humor and heart.

 

Admittedly, that style isn’t for everyone. McKay, who directed the pilot episode, took the fourth wall breaks and asides to the audience that he used in the Big Short and made them a staple of Dr. Buss’s character. However, this bit of comedic gimmickry does not wipe out the show’s dramatic stakes, which often extend far beyond a mere game. Characters battle addictions, self-doubt, and even death itself. It helps that the show’s production values are high, offering a period music/fashion/palette combination that seems Scorsesian at times.

 

Winning Time was made without the participation of the actual Lakers, several of whom were miffed at their portrayals. In some cases, it isn’t hard to see why. Several characters are exaggerated to cartoonish proportions. Those that are written as three-dimensional, on the other hand, are generally well-acted. Reilly is magnetic as Buss, playing him as half visionary, half sleazy hustler. Field adds a touch of vulnerability to a sharp-tongued granny role. Hadley Robinson as young Jeanie Buss (currently, the Lakers owner) functions as the family’s moral center. Isaiah captures both Johnson’s almost-perpetual smile as well as the drive and the doubts that lay beyond it. Solomon Hughes, a college basketball player turned academic in his first acting role, faced an unenviable task in portraying Lakers captain Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He comes across as one-dimensionally aloof in the early episodes, but Hughes is adept at capturing his leadership, intelligence, and competitive fire later on. Perhaps the best supporting turn, however, belongs to Wood Harris as bruising veteran forward Spencer Haywood. Harris, who was pushing thirty when he played a high schooler in Remember the Titans, is again far too old for the part, but he does such a good job of capturing the addiction-addled Haywood’s inner demons that you hardly notice.

 

That said, there are plenty of things in Winning Time that you do notice that you wish you hadn’t. West is introduced as drunk, angry, profane, and full of self-loathing over his championship losses. While he eventually mellows out as he transitions from the bench to the front office, it’s still a far cry from the more cordial mentor figure that many of his real-life colleagues describe. The Nixon-Johnson rivalry is transparently inflated only for them to have an equally transparent “come together and win” moment later on. The same cheap dramatization goes for the team’s coaching carousel. In short, West recruited unheralded Portland Trailblazers assistant Jack McKinney (Tracy Letts) as his replacement, and McKinney in turn recruits his friend, Shakespeare-quoting Paul Westhead (Jason Segel) from the college ranks. McKinney installs an up-tempo offense, the team takes off, McKinney gets hurt, a panicked Westhead tabs floundering color commentator/former Laker Pat Riley (Adrien Brody) as his assistant, McKinney recovers, and suddenly, there’s a bitter rivalry for the coaching job. The contention may make for a good television conflict, but they also serve to make McKinney look spiteful and Westhead weak. At least Brody captures Riley’s famous intensity.

 

Winning Time is primed for a second season, which makes sense as there are plenty more stories left to tell. What follows has the potential to be as entertaining as what has aired so far, but a little bit of nuance and grounding can go a long way toward winning over skeptics.