Winning Time, Magic Johnson’s Lakers TV series: where to see it

Ready for a journey through time? The Showtime Lakers, the ones who dominated the Eighties with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar rivaling Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics, land on TV. From 9.15pm on Sky Atlantic and streaming on Now (where all the episodes are available) arrives Winning Time, the series that chronicles the decade that made that team epic. It is not a documentary like The Last Dance, which during the pandemic delivered Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls to the new generations: it is a series inspired by real events, but still fiction. And this has also caused controversy, such as the interpretation that in the series is given to the character of Jerry West. The real Mr. Logo got so mad at how Jason Clarke brought him to the screen that he already turned to his attorneys asking for an apology and damages to Hbo. “The series makes us all look like cartoons. I’m ready to go all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.”

the series

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Removed from controversies like West’s and some freedoms in the narrative, Winning Time is a blast from the past of the NBA and US society, welcomed by critics. “The fans will love this series because we often only see what we see on the pitch of our sporting heroes,” said Quincy Isaiah, who plays Magic Johnson. “In this series you see who the people were, why they are champions. See much more. than what you usually see in a sportsman “. “What I think will fascinate many is to see what basketball was before 1979 and what it became after – says John C. Riley, who plays Jerry Buss -. We think the NBA has always been popular, it will be nice to show the audience. that modern basketball did not exist before 1979: it was just a sporting event that those Lakers transformed into entertainment, making the Forum a modern Colosseum “. The series begins with Buss finalizing the purchase of the yellow-violet (also exchanging the Chrysler Building, one of the most iconic skyscrapers in New York) and looking for the symbol of his new team in the Draft, finding it in Magic Johnson. The entire first series is dedicated to that historic first season of Magic as a team, from his relationship with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to how Buss’s visionary ideas revolutionized the Lakers and the NBA in general. Sally Field, who plays Buss’s mother in the series, was a Lakers subscriber in those years: “Before they were just a basketball team that no one cared about, then they became the event you can’t miss.” Among the curiosities of the series, whose first season lasts 10 episodes: Norm Nixon, the rival playmate of Magic, is played by his son DeVaughn, a professional actor. He is the only one to have received advice from the character he plays.