Jun 12, 2022
Based on the novel Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and
the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s by Jeff
Pearlman, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers
Dynasty chronicles the 1980s Showtime era of the Los
Angeles Lakers basketball team featuring notable NBA stars Magic
Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Series co-creator and showrunner
Max Borenstein describes the challenges of having to imagine what
certain moments and conversations looked like without having been
in the room: "Our role is to take the things we know - I look at it
as the tip of the iceberg... the role of the drama is to then
imaginatively reconstruct what might have been or could have been
underneath the surface, and oftentimes.. you're imagining your way
into that room where you have no idea exactly what was said."
Borenstein goes on to explain what drew him to tell this particular
story from this particular time period: "I happen to be a
basketball fan, but what was exciting to me was not just retelling
the story of this particular basketball team; it was that this
particular basketball team and this dynasty speaks to a change in
the way entertainment worked and the way celebrity works... I think
the Showtime Lakers [are] a perfect prism through which to view
that moment in time."
Season one of Winning Time is now available on
HBO Max.