HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty dives into the colorful history of the Los Angeles Lakers, focusing on the first years of Jerry Buss’ ownership of the NBA franchise. The series is inspired by Jeff Pearlman’s book Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s and stars Oscar nominee John C. Reilly as the charismatic wheeler-dealer who not only revived the Lakers but also the entire NBA.
Quincy Isaiah fills Magic Johnson’s huge shoes, playing the NBA legend at the beginning of his professional career. And during the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour, Isaiah revealed his first love was actually basketball. “That’s what I wanted to be, so for me to portray one of the greatest basketball players in the history of the game is incredible,” said Isaiah.
Isaiah was determined to make the basketball look authentic, while fully aware of how difficult it is to imitate Magic Johnson’s skills. “It’s hard to emulate that but we can get a little taste, a little essence of who they are on the court,” said Isaiah. “I feel like that goes a long way.”
Winning Time was co-created by executive producers/writers Max Borenstein (The Terror) and Jim Hecht, with Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up) also executive producing as well as directing the pilot. The series is described as a drama but there’s plenty of humor, much of which centers around John C. Reilly as Jerry Buss.
Reilly does a phenomenal job of playing the millionaire who resurrected the Lakers, and the trailer teases the series’ use of breaking the fourth wall to include the audience in key events and provide relevant tidbits.
John C. Reilly credits playing Oliver Hardy in Stan & Ollie as preparing him for breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the audience in Winning Time.
“It was almost like you kind of had to decide some qualities for your scene partner, the camera. Normally when you’re acting with an actor, you can just see what they’re giving off. But when you’re looking into the camera, it’s not ‘no one’ that you’re talking to. You’re kind of talking to everyone,” explained Reilly. “So, I tried to be as specific and as intimate as I could be to build that relationship from episode to episode, so that you really felt comfortable when I was talking to you and leading the way through this story, here and there.”
For Quincy Isaiah, there were natural beats when it just felt right to speak directly into the camera. “And sometimes people would be like, ‘Hey, why don’t you try to deliver that line to this camera?’ And I’d be like, ‘Okay, let me try it.’ And then you know, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But I feel like they figure out which one feels the best,” explained Isaiah.
“That sense that the characters in the story could at any time turn right to you and start talking to you, I think, creates this kind of chaotic wonderful energy in the show, too,” added Reilly.
The official trailer allows a brief glimpse at the adversarial relationship between Jerry Buss and the Boston Celtics’ Red Auerbach. Michael Chiklis plays Red, the legendary cigar-chomping head coach and Celtics executive who won 16 NBA championships, including nine as a coach.
“Michael Chiklis is a great actor. While doing this show, it was just hit one after the other with all these great actors coming in, and Michael was a really formidable presence not only because of his character, Red Auerbach. It’s an inherent kind of clash set up there, but Michael himself is a really powerful guy,” said Reilly. “He has an intense energy, and he comes to win. We’re working together, but he comes…I had to stand toe-to-toe with him in many different places. Those scenes were great because it’s, in a way, the relationship.
And, by the way, the things we portray in the show – some of it is blanks that have been filled in by our screenwriters, some of it is based on historical record, and I didn’t know the difference. I’ve never wanted to know the difference. I didn’t want to know what really happened and what didn’t happen, because I needed to be acting like it all happened.”
Reilly continued: “Those scenes between Jerry and Red were really intense because it was, in a way, Jerry’s education to what it’s like to be an owner of a sports team at that level. I think Jerry, in our story, Jerry felt like, ‘Well, maybe this guy will be like a mentor to me. He’s been doing it so long. He’s won so much already. Maybe he’s getting tired of it, and he wants to help someone else.’
Of course, that was not the case. That was not in the cards. Red Auerbach was a vicious competitor.”
Not all the action in Winning Time is on the court. Buss was a bachelor who liked to party, and Reilly believes Buss handled himself like most men of wealth would in the same circumstances.
“In terms of the hedonistic stuff that we get into with Jerry is really, to me, just a feature of the time, you know? Late ‘70s, that was the scene among a man of his age, for the most part, certainly in Los Angeles,” said Reilly. “He was a confirmed bachelor. After he got divorced, he dated a lot, so we definitely wanted to be truthful about that part of it. But I think you’ll agree when you see the whole series that that’s just one small facet of Jerry’s life.
The truth is it’s one of the greatest American stories I’ve ever come across. What he did, where he came from in Wyoming, and where he ended up here in Los Angeles can only happen in this country. I’ll just I’ll leave it at that.”
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The 10-episode series debuts Sunday, March 6, 2022 at 9pm ET/PT on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max.
In addition to John C. Reilly and Quincy Isaiah, Winning Time stars Jason Clarke as Jerry West, Adrien Brody as Pat Riley, Gaby Hoffmann as Claire Rothman, Tracy Letts as Jack McKinney, Jason Segel as Paul Westhead, Sally Field as Jessie Buss, and Julianne Nicholson as Cranny McKinney.
Hadley Robinson plays Jeanie Buss, DeVaughn Nixon is Norm Nixon, Solomon Hughes as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tamera Tomakili is Earleatha “Cookie” Kelly, Brett Cullen is Bill Sharman, and Stephen Adly Guirgis is Frank Mariani.
