If there is any sports dynasty that merits a multi-season fictional commitment, it’s the Showtime Lakers, so it was no surprise that Adam McKay’s series Winning Time got a second season from HBO. After all, the first season only goes up to the dynasty’s first championship in 1980; they ended up winning five rings during the decade. The second season examines the turmoil the team had after that championship, the coach that righted the ship, and the rivalry that turned the NBA from an almost-forgotten entity into one of the biggest shows on the planet.
Opening Shot: We hear broadcasters talking. “1984 NBA FINALS. GAME 1.” The final horn sounds, and we see Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) smiling broadly, because the Lakers just beat the Boston Celtics in storied Boston Garden. As he celebrates, surrounded by angry Celtics fans, security pulls him out of the crowd.
The Gist: The Lakers don’t even get out of their uniforms; they get on the bus to the hotel, surrounded by Celtics fans in near-riot. Coach Pat Riley (Adrien Brody) screams to his team, “We want their fucking hearts!”
Four years earlier, the Lakers are coming off their first championship since 1972, where rookie superstar point guard Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) took over for an injured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Solomon Hughes) at center and had the game of his life to win the clinching game against the 76ers. Magic is riding high, and as training camp opens for the 1980-81 season, Magic makes it his mission to have coach Paul Westhead (Jason Segel) run and gun instead of having everything go through the still-hobbled Kareem.
During the draft, Celtics president Red Auerbach (Michael Chiklis) warns Buss, Jerry West (Jason Clarke) and GM Bill Sharman (Brett Cullen) to not get greedy, or else, “I’ll put my Florsheim up your cowboy ass.” It just so happened that Auerbach drafted Kevin McHale and traded for Robert Parish at that draft, so he has a right to tell Buss not to be so cocky.
Magic is dealing with a paternity claim from a young woman he slept with. His lawyers want Magic to pay the mother and provide for the child, but then have nothing to do with either. That doesn’t sit well with Magic, who doesn’t think someone with his blood walking around shouldn’t know his father. But he’s not sure what to do.
Riley, Westhead’s main assistant coach, is putting together new plays and rotations because he knows everyone will be after the new champs, but Westhead is more concerned with the personality mix on the team. How can Kareem and Magic get along now that Magic knows they can win without their captain?
Meanwhile, Buss wants to get ahead of the impending institution of free agency in the NBA by paying his players ten times what they’re making now. Sharman and West think that’s insane, and no one knows where the money is going to come from, but Buss is insistent. He decides to create other sports teams and put his kids Jeanie (Hadley Robinson), Jimmy (McCabe Slye) and Johnny (Thomas Mann) in charge of them, in order to get a larger line of credit.
Shortly after the season starts, Magic severely injures his knee, requiring surgery; he may not even make it back for the playoffs. Depressed and lost, Magic goes back to his parents’ house in Lansing, Michigan, where he tries to get back together with a reluctant Cookie (Tamera Tomakili) while still dealing with the paternity issue. However, both his father, Earvin Sr. (Rob Morgan), and mother, Christine (LisaGay Hamilton) do their best to persuade their son to do right by the child and be in his life.
In Magic’s absence, the Lakers play poorly, and Buss blows up during a family night game of Monopoly, essentially calling his sons soft. But Westhead has a plan: “The System,” where everyone runs to a spot on offense and just shoots as soon as they touch the ball. The team starts playing well together and winning, but what will happen when Magic comes back?
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Since executive producer Adam McKay’s style is thoroughly imprinted on Winning Time, we’ll stand by our first season assessment that the show reminds us of The Last Dance if it was fictionalized and crossed with The Big Short.
Our Take: If showrunner Max Borenstein has done anything to fundamentally change Winning Time between seasons, we don’t see it. It definitely feels like a continuation of the story of the Lakers Showtime dynasty, but wit the arc taking us from just after Magic and Kareem’s first championship together to the first time Larry Bird and Magic met in the NBA Finals, when the Celtics beat the Lakers in 1984.
Those four years are eventful, as any sports fan knows; Westhead, who somehow leads the Lakers to the title after taking over for an ailing Jack McKinney after the coach gets into an accident shortly after the ’79-80 season began, is fired 11 games into the 1981-82 season, in no small part due to conflicts with Magic. His hand-picked assistant, Pat Riley, takes over, slicks back his hair and the rest is history. Magic’s rivalry with Larry Bird (Sean Patrick Small) kicks into overdrive, and is what revitalizes the league right before Michael Jordan is drafted and sends it into the stratosphere. Oh, and the Lakers actually win another ring in 1982, beating the Sixers again, before Dr. J and company get the best of them in 1983.
So there’s a lot for Borenstein and his writers to work with. And, by now, viewers probably realize that the narrative that Borenstein and company puts forth isn’t necessarily going to be exactly what happened, given the controversies surrounding the accuracy of the first season. In fact, a disclaimer at the beginning of the episode is in place to set viewers’ expectations and let them know that this is a fictionalized and dramatized version of the Lakers dynasty.
The stylistic touches of the first season are there: the use of graphics, characters breaking the fourth wall, scenes switching into a grainy video-style mode and back to film again. What we also noticed is that there seems to be a bit more of a concentration on Buss and his family, Magic, Kareem, Westhead and Riley, at the sacrifice Claire Rothman (Gaby Hoffmann) and Norm Nixon (DeVaughn Nixon). Given how the 1980-84 period played out, perhaps that’s a good idea, though we hope we get to see more of Hoffmann as the season goes along.
But, like last season, the performances are what’s going to carry this show, especially now that it’s owning the idea that it’s playing fast and loose with the facts. And those performances continue to be excellent, especially Isaiah and Hughes as Magic and Kareem.
Sex and Skin: Magic sleeps with his lawyer, and with a random woman who complains that his cast is cutting into her. So, uh, there’s plenty of sex and skin.
Parting Shot: During a Lakers-Celtics game, Magic comes out in street clothes and a cup of popcorn, just in time for Bird to sink a shot. “Sit down and relax,” Bird tells him. “We’ll put on a show just for you.” Magic turns to the camera and says, “You know, I really hate that motherfucker.”
Sleeper Star: LisaGay Hamilton does a fine job as Magic’s mother Christine, especially during a scene where she visits Cookie and tells her to stick with her son, despite his immature behavior.
Most Pilot-y Line: After Magic gets lectured by the father of the baby’s mother during a negotiation with Magic’s lawyers, Magic tells his dad, “Why did you let him talk to me like that?,” to which his dad replied, “You’re lucky we didn’t let him club you like a baby seal!”
Our Call: STREAM IT. The stylistic flourishes of Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty can be distracting at times, but the story is still solid (even if it’s not fully factual) and the performances are still across-the-board excellent.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
