If you want to know who the show is going to shit on, take a look at who isn't in the good graces of Jeanie Buss. It portrays her as a precocious business genius who is also the one pure soul in LA. The Lakers took a high profile shit on Jerry West, so it isn't surprising that he's depicted in an unflattering light. With that said, the way Jason Clarke plays him is also hilarious.

I can see Jerry West being a dick. He was the face of the Lakers and then Magic Johnson comes in and steals his thunder. Jealousy. Its a story as old as time really.

Yeah, I have a hard time believing that some of this isn't the recent history of West as a very staid, behind the scenes personality being imparted onto his earlier years.

Because West was absolutely something of a fireplug as a player and I don't see that just shutting off as he became the coach and eventual driving force of the 80s Lakers.

Do I think he was some drunk rageaholic? No. But I think the show got away from that fairly quickly. I feel like at this point he's one of the more likeable characters in the show.

It's the 80s lakers.

And yeah, Buss absolutely dressed like that. I remember him dressing like that into the late 90s. But here's a picture of him holding the trophy they haven't even won yet on the show....

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/uj...4_73733787.jpg

And yeah, he was a poon hound. I think the characterizations of Buss are extremely fair and Reilly has done an exceptional job portraying him.

John C. Reilly did a lot of serious roles before he was typecast in comedy, so I'm not surprised in the slightest that he was able to pull this off. He can do it all.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Jerry West&#39;s not done with HBO&#39;s <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WinningTime?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WinningTime</a>.<br><br>“The series made [the Lakers] look like cartoon characters,” West told former <a href="https://twitter.com/latimessports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@latimessports</a> editor Bill Dwyre. “They belittled something good. If I have to I will take this all the way to the Supreme Court.”<a href="https://t.co/r4cuxurzIX">https://t.co/r4cuxurzIX</a></p>&mdash; L.A. Times Sports (@latimessports) <a href="https://twitter.com/latimessports/status/1518963997931843584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 26, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

That sounds like something the TV version of Jerry West would say.

In any case, I very much agree at this point that he's one of the most likable characters on the show.

I completely agree -- he's maybe the most likeable character.

But I also understand why he'd be upset at scenes of him rawdogging a woman, and being perpetually foul mouthed and miserable, and slamming his MVP trophy against anything nearby.

It's just a show, folks. He is only the canvas on which Adam McKay drew.

Mark Zuckerberg is a horrible human being, but he realized that The Social Network was a dramatic story that happened to be about him, not a direct documentary on Facebook.

And again, think of how he handled some of his later years in LA behind the scenes and how frustrated/flat out angry he got at being someone marginalized.

I don't doubt for a single second that the miserable, hyper-competitive elements of the character we're seeing are pretty accurate. Again, West was NOT a wilting flower. And he was always known as one of the league's great competitors.

Why would that not carry over into his front-office years?

I've watched this whole series so far. The only really likable characters are the guy who plays Michael Cooper, the guy who plays Pat Reilly and the guy who plays Buss' business partner. Everybody else has been a douche. Magic will screw anything that moves. Cookie hangs with him even though he boinked her best friend. Buss is a total degenerate. He motor boated the hospice nurse (who is some Mexican model, btw). Sally Field is a drunk. His daughter is psycho. Kareem is a dick to all the other players on the team. Jerry West is a raging alcoholic. Chick Hearn calls Reilly's color analyst voice "bundle of sticksgy." Westhead is a pants wetting coward. The coach who fell off his bike is a mean spirited ego maniac. Bird is a surly douche. Doctor J plays Magic like a fiddle, just like Norm Nixon did in training camp. Even Buss' secretary will do whatever to stay employed. Paula Abdul is a pole dancer. John C. Reilly as Buss is pretty entertaining. He plays sleazeball to a T.

Bird was a surly douche who talked copious amounts of trash on the court. If they get that far I wonder how they will handle A.C. Green.

Is Magic going to sleep with a barnyard animal?

Best
Series
Ever

Rumors on S2 being renewed….either a continuation of 1980s (yay!) or the Shaq Kobe run. Shaq says he’s in. But guess who won’t be? ME.

why jump over the Bird/Magic championship games in the mid 80’s?

From everything I’ve read they aren’t skipping over the Magic era at all in S2.

S2 should really cover the next 2 years.


80-81 can show the cracks developing and Westhead trying to put his stamp on the team and prove that he’s a real NBA coach and not just someone coasting on McKinney (which, coincidentally, is mostly what Riley went on to do offensively).

81-82 can have Magic cutting Westhead off at the knees, McAdoo showing up and Riley making the Lakers ‘his’ team.

Seems like ‘80 through ‘82 is a perfect little timespan.