Winning Time (the HBO series) is based on writer Jeff Pearlman’s 2014 book “Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s.” I didn’t write that book and remain dismissive of its reliance on gossip-y, horny-porny topics. But the emergence of the series has brought many questions my way, including some from Peter Olney, a long-term friend (and co-editor of the Stansbury Forum), an admirable worker for “la gente,” the common folk. 

The book I did write, which was my first, is “Show Time: Inside the Lakers’ Breakthrough Season”, done with and for Pat Riley, the former player who became the Lakers’ coach and guided them through the 1980s, first as assistant coach then as head coach beginning in 1982. 

If memory serves, Sports Illustrated called them the best team of the century – in any sport. 

When the book behind the series came to my attention, I couldn’t help noticing they’d borrowed the title Pat and I had used in 1988, giving it a minor typography tweak. Since titles can’t be copyrighted, I didn’t begrudge the author for borrowing it. It had been conferred by our publisher anyway, not by us, because it was marketable. And the book became a strong best-seller, for which the publisher paid us a nice wad of bonus money. I’m still grateful to Pat for choosing me to write it.

Winning Time is enormously successful as entertainment, not as documentation, but entertainment fulfills important needs. The first season also covered a time span before I got lucky enough to be a fringe character around the Lakers organization. Still, I have some bones to pick.

Let’s start with the late Jerry Buss, owner of the Lakers. He was angry that we’d used “Show Time” because in his mind he believed he would one day write a book with that title. He didn’t leave behind any book, as it turned out. But he did leave some impressions. My exposure to Buss was limited. In fact, the friendly hour or so I spent interviewing him was more time than I needed or desired. The charisma in John C. Reilly’s performance as Buss exceeds that of the man he portrays by a huge multiple. In my experience, Buss exuded beyond-ripe body odors from the pits of his single-color silk shirts, and in scoring his numerous “dates” had the services of a couple of guys anyone would describe as pimps. They sorted and culled from the female talent hanging around after games in hopes of making it with one or more of the players, found the one(s) willing to settle instead for the rich guy who paid the players’ salaries, and guided them to Buss. 

Jerry West I barely met. But I never saw or heard evidence that he was the tantrum-throwing hothead he’s portrayed to be in the series. Still, he was tightly wound. When I asked him a potentially ticklish question – about a trade Buss wanted to make, one that would have proved stupid – he refused to answer. I shelved the question and moved on. Within two minutes he circled back and answered the question at length, as if needing to unburden. 

Kareem, Michael Cooper, Jamaal Wilkes, and many other insiders also disagree with how West was characterized. West has threatened the series producers with a suit. I imagine he could win. 

Chick Hearn, the announcer, was his own greatest fan and in my experience a miserable s.o.b. I didn’t know about his alcohol habit until seeing the series, but it fits with his personal behavior. His shtick was so tedious that when I watched from home, I turned off the sound. He liked to believe that he was a power in the organization. But when word went around that Hearn said he disapproved of a certain trade and would make his feelings known, West reacted with laughter.

I should add that Riles never spoke ill of either Buss or Hearn, both of whom were instrumental in his career and deserving of his respect. 

Pat may feel honored to have a great actor like Adrien Brody portraying him, I doubt he was ever as stylistically clueless as the Winning Time wardrobe department has made him – no doubt to build contrast for the closet full of bespoke suits he began assembling when his paychecks grew. Before the Armani connection was made, he liked his pants with a welted seam on the legs – a flashy choice, but subtle. In more recent years, Pat has acquired a lead-sled customized postwar Mercury from ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons, and some vintage electric guitars, so he remains a fan of the things that were cool when he was a kid.

Kareem has complained that the portrayal of Magic makes him seem like a simpleton easily led around by the sexual honey constantly being offered, and that his own portrayal makes him seem like “a pompous prick.” Kareem is in fact a complex guy, the “brother from another planet” to many of his teammates, and not comfortable with being the focus of all the personal attention that comes with being extremely tall, talented, intellectual, trail-blazing and fame-worthy. There were times when I saw him as a prick, but I’ve also seen the shy guy who would like to be left alone with his headphones and his music. 

What else? 

In Magic’s first game and first win as a Laker, he didn’t feed Kareem in the post for the game-winning hook shot. That was done by teammate Don Ford, with a long inbounds pass. I’m sure there are plenty of other halfway-true elements from on-court and off. But Winning Time is no documentary. It’s reductionist, slappy, heavy on the gossip, and it pushes limits in order to convey how much excitement Los Angeles felt for their Lakers through the 1980s. In that pursuit, the show needs to be hyperbolic because the reality was that Magic and Company, Riles and staff, gave L.A. fans an amazingly enormous and long-lasting lift through the decade. It was a generous gift. Magic – Earvin to his family and Buck to his teammates – really is a great presence in any room, magnetic and joyful, with a sense of appreciation for his fan support, even when he might wish to have some time off from the adulation.

Theresa Volpe Laursen, my wife, worked in costuming for the 1989 Eddie Murphy film Harlem Nights. At the cast and crew wrap party, Murphy and other celebrities (Arsenio, etc.) had their party in an exclusive room. We never saw them. But Magic spent much of the evening rubbing shoulders with the drivers, costumers, camera operators, and other down-to-earth folk. Asked to pose for photos, he always obliged, and his smile never faded. Just as he did while running the Lakers to greatness on the court, he made sure everybody had their moments of glory and belonging.      

Maybe the second season of Winning Time will give him, and all the Show Time Lakers, a more grown-up and truer to life representation. 

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