Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty

 

 

                         With the NBA Finals almost coming to an end (Sorry Celtics, but I'm predicting the Warriors are going to take Game 6, oh hold up Warriors won YEAH! SUCK ON THAT BOSTON) I figured that I should do a binge night and finally finish what I look at as the best Basketball show on TV. I've always said that Hoosiers was the greatest Basketball movie, but Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty is hands down the best and maybe the greatest Basketball show on TV. For many reasons, is that this centers on the beginning of the Lakers Dynasty, and they had one of the most interesting characters in the history of NBA Basketball players like yours truly Magic Johnson Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Norm Nixon along with rookie owner Dr. Jerry Buss, GM Jerry West and coaches Jack McKinney, Paul Westhead and Pat O'Reilly. And all these greats had their flaws, but they also brought Basketball to the fore front. And to me that's what makes this show interesting to watch.

                          A dramatic look at the glitz and glamour of 1980's Los Angeles and the rise of the NBA's Lakers, Dr. Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) and Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah).

                         Granted if you're a Lakers fan or a Basketball fan you've probably heard of the Showtime Lakers of the 1980's dynasty from reading Jeff Pearlman's book ShowTime or watched the three-part documentary of the Celtics/Lakers rivalry on 30 for 30 (ESPN). Though there are some of us that have the time and place to sit down and read a book and when it comes to documentaries, they show you the history but they sometimes sugar coat the details. So, when it comes the HBO show I was intrigued mainly because they were going to finally show the dark side of 1980's Basketball and it wasn't just Dr. Buss and Johnson but there were a lot of characters on the Lakers team a side from Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I've said it multiple times if you are going to do 80's NBA Basketball you really have to tell through the LA Lakers because compared to them and the 80's Boston Celtics, those would be just boring guys to follow because I strongly doubt there wasn't a whole lot of partying going on, especially when it comes to Celtic's legend Larry Bird. But with the Lakers you've got a lot of guys on that team that were a bunch of drug users and womanizers that just make you think how they can have the time and energy to even get through the day. Especially moments in the show where you have Magic and his soon to be future wife Cookie Johnson having these tender moments while I'm screaming at the TV going "run bitch run, his Johnson is so contaminated it would be like Chernobyl but in LA", see even watching stuff like this makes me want to cringe because of how toxic these too are you just can't stop watching them, so hopefully when the next season comes around I hope to see a lot of Magic's sex's escapades and him trying to make it up with Cookie. Now as you've all known by now some Laker legends have distain for how their portrait in the show, but when it comes to Magic not wanting to watch the show because of the embarrassment that would effect on his kids that right there I can totally understand a lot of. But the other Laker's legends like Jerry West and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar I see more on the overreacting side to it most notably them not liking how the way they are portrait on the small screen, now I can see when you’re doing a show about real life events, yeah there are times where you have to dramatize things a little but the way West overreacts to how he's portrait even go so far as to take it to supreme court (granted I don't remember a whole lot of the detail's because just thinking about hurts my brain) Kareem on the other hand may have same reason as Jerry West but let’s keep in mind that this was the same guy who threw a massive fit about how Bruce Lee was portrait in the movie Once Upon A Time in Hollywood for which is about a movie where the Manson cult get their fictionalized due. And maybe those two men's reasons are right and sure they have a point but deep down take a step back when it comes to these show that are talking about you. I will say the most impressive part of the show is the ensemble cast John C. Reilly does a great job playing Dr. Jerry Buss whose trying to save the game of Basketball, while Jason Clarke does a fantastic job playing Jerry West who at first seems like a former player with a lot of anger issues but has is best moments being a great motivator, especially in one of my favorite scenes where he and Magic Johnson shares a great moment of how to be a winner. The other actor I thought did a fantastic job was Adrian Brody playing Pat Reilly where through the course of the show you see him as a man without any purpose but by the end has finds the true purpose he's been seeking. Now finally we got the recognizable actors out of the way, I'm going to take more of the time to talk about the newcomer who does a fantastic job playing the legendary Laker, Magic Johnson aka Quincey Isaiah whom there's really nothing to say other than he was born to play Magic Johnson, like you look at this guy on screen and they are exactly the same person like the creators went back in time and took the young Magic Johnson from the past and gave him like fake identity, it’s just so bizarre but yet how great of casting they were able to pull off and casting Quincey Isaiah, furthermore he does such a tremendous job embodying Magic Johnson, and to be honest I can name a lot of things on how good his performance was I honestly don't want to spoil the fun for this great show. Despite a lot of questions, I have with the film, when it comes to some of the story, in if there were fact or fiction, I still look at this as a great Basketball show to watch on HBO Max, where Hoosiers is the greatest Basketball movie of all time, I rank Winning Time as one of the best Basketball shows of all time.