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Winning Time Drowning in Criticism from Lakers Legends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jerry West

The HBO series has received heavy criticism for accuracy from former Lakers and fans.

Despite reviews ranging from mixed to terrible, HBOโ€™s drama, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, has been a ratings winner for the network and is already renewed for Season 2. However, some of the seriesโ€™ biggest critics are former Lakers.

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In a Substack post on Tuesday, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar takes the show to task for โ€œcrude stick-figureโ€ characters, but makes it very clear that he doesnโ€™t have a problem with his portrayal by Solomon Hughes, writing, โ€œThereโ€™s very little that anyone can say about meโ€”whether itโ€™s true or falseโ€”that will affect my life.โ€

What the five-time champion does take issue with are the one-note, boring characters. In a series featuring some of the most well-known, outrageous personalities in sports, director/executive producer Adam McKay fails to deliver an interesting cast.

โ€œThe characters are crude stick-figure representations that resemble real people the way Lego Han Solo resembles Harrison Ford,โ€ Abdul-Jabbar writes. โ€œEach character is reduced to a single bold trait as if the writers were afraid anything more complex would tax the viewersโ€™ comprehension.โ€

Well, damn. As usual, Kareem isnโ€™t wrong.

Winning Time has Magic as a womanizing idiot who happens to be good at basketball, Jerry Buss is an over-the-top salesman at all times and Kareem is a serious activist who never smiles. Another annoying element that doesnโ€™t add anything to the proceedings is the constant fourth wall breaks. This is one of McKayโ€™s signatures, but it serves no purpose hereโ€”as Abdul-Jabbar made sure to point out.

โ€œHe uses the technique of breaking the fourth wall in order to have the characters directly address the audience,โ€ the Hall of Famer writes. โ€œThe only reason to do this is to get humor or give insight, as it does in his The Big Short and other films such as Annie Hall, Ferris Buellerโ€™s Day Off, Deadpool, and the TV show Fleabag. But in Winning Time, itโ€™s neither funny nor insightful, mostly just giving us information.โ€

Photo: Warrick Page/HBO

In a project full of mischaracterizations and historical inaccuracies, the most egregious comes in the portrayal of Lakers legend Jerry West. Kareem is particularly insulted at how Winning Time uses Westโ€™s mental health issues, something heโ€™s been very public about, as throwaway jokes.

โ€œInstead of exploring his issues with compassion as a way to better understand the man, they turn him into a Wile E. Coyote cartoon to be laughed at,โ€ he writes. โ€œHe never broke golf clubs, he didnโ€™t throw his trophy through the window. Sure, those actions make dramatic moments, but they reek of facile exploitation of the man rather than exploration of character.โ€

In fact, West is so upset about his portrayal that heโ€™s demanding an apology and retraction from McKay, HBO and its parent company Warner Bros.-Discovery. According to ESPN, a letter sent by Westโ€™s lawyers says โ€œWinning Time falsely and cruelly portrays Mr. West as an out-of-control, intoxicated rage-aholic.โ€

โ€œJerry West was an integral part of the Lakers and NBAโ€™s success. It is a travesty that HBO has knowingly demeaned him for shock value and the pursuit of ratings,โ€ Skip Miller, a partner at the Miller Barondess LLP law firm in Los Angeles and attorney for West, said in the letter. โ€œAs an act of common decency, HBO and the producers owe Jerry a public apology and at the very least should retract their baseless and defamatory portrayal of him.โ€

HBO has clearly taken a lot of liberties with Winning Time, but when dramatic license hurts the real people youโ€™re portraying, you need to take some responsibility for getting the important things wrong.

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