When it comes to basketball it’s hard to be fitter than the Los Angeles Lakers in the ’80s: Magic Johnson or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are admired even by people who don’t like the sport and are remembered more than thirty years later as a milestone of the sport.
For this reason, fans rubbed their hands with ‘Time to Win: The Lakers Dynasty’, the HBO Max series about the era when they were known as the Showtime Lakers. But those involved were not present at the creation… And they are not happy about it.
I demand a satisfaction
The most outraged by the vision that is given of him in the series (rightly so) is jerry west, an NBA legend who is portrayed in the series as a hot-tempered, hate-filled executive prone to outbursts. At 83, West has sent a letter to HBO demanding a retraction and apology from Adam McKay and the streaming service, as his character “doesn’t look anything like the real person.” According to his lawyer, the portrait of him in ‘Tiempo de victoria’ is that of a fiction masquerading as fact. He is not the only one who has been angry or disappointed by the series.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar He is no stranger to the world of television, and not only as an actor or guest star: he was a writer and producer of the sequel to ‘Veronica Mars’ and other documentaries. Jabbar is not in the mood to sugarcoat the series, and has stated on his blog (in an entry that I invite you to read because it is a hilarious and very well written savagery) that “Not only is it deliberately dishonest, it’s sadly boring.”
There is only one unchangeable sin in writing: Don’t be boring! ‘Time of victory’ commits that sin over and over again (…) I thought that the poor quality of ‘Don’t look up’ was an anomaly. He hoped that perhaps because he was overwhelmed by his passion for global warming, he let his commitment cloud his critical eye. But now that ‘Time of Victory’ suffers from the same superficiality and vague writing, I’m not so sure. (…) Yes, there is an incredible, compelling and culturally insightful story there. ‘Time to win’ just isn’t that story.
magic johnsonmeanwhile, stated in Variety that you can’t do a series about the Lakers without the Lakers. “The real Lakers. You have to have these people. There’s no way to duplicate Showtime. I don’t care who you get.” For its part, claire rothman she was also upset after reading the script of the first episode and discovering that his character was unbuttoning his blouse before seeing Jerry West. “That’s bullshit nonsense,” she said.
three episodes left to try to curry favor with the athletes of the time before season 2, but everything seems to indicate that, at least for now, ‘Time of victory’ he has not managed to score a triple.