Why HBO'S Winning Time is not a Winner in my mind

5) Also, check out my updated review of “Winning Time”, Article 33) in the archives section <41st OP>

May 2, 2022

For basketball fans, those of the NBA in particular, you must have heard about HBO’S “Winning-Time” about the 1980s Showtime Lakers, by now. The stars are naturally Magic and Kareem, along with Hall-of-Fame Coach Pat Riley, as well as the greatest GM ever in Jerry West, and the greatest NBA owner ever in Dr. Jerry Buss. In fact, even Larry Bird’s character makes a few appearances in this show too.

The creation of “Winning Time” was inspired by Jeff Pearlman’s NY Times best selling book “Showtime”. But, despite all the winning the Lakers did, the charisma of Magic Johnson and the fascinating character that is Dr. Jerry Buss, the HBO show gets so much wrong. How could that be?

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HBO's “Winning Time” gets another look, and a big thumbs up by me: Hulu’s “Lakers Legacy” is also great

In my initial assessment of HBO’s “Winning Time” on the Showtime 1980s Lakers, I got carried away by a few things in writing my initial review (which was certainly not impartial). I leaned heavily into the fact that the show did take a lot of liberties in their depiction of historical Lakers events during that time period…

7 months ago · 7 likes · 4 comments · Joshua Pressman Jacobs

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