‘Winning Time’ Nearly Scores With Its Energetic Portrait of the Lakers Dynasty

Alci Rengifo

“Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” bills itself as the story behind one of basketball’s most well-known teams and brands. But you don’t have to know too much about the Lakers, or even basketball, to understand the bigger picture of this limited series. Creators Max Borenstein and Jim Hecht seek to channel how professional sports are such an embodiment of America. It should come as no surprise that another producer on the series is director Adam McKay, who also directs the pilot. McKay’s recent work has been all about dissecting U.S. society and its socio-political drives. On that level, “Winning Time” can be very fascinating even when the narrative lacks focus.

The story kicks off with plenty of initial energy centered on Dr. Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly). In 1979, Buss was enjoying himself at the Playboy Mansion while contemplating the value of basketball. Viewers who were born long after the ‘70s will be surprised to learn that there was a time when basketball was not that big of a deal. The Lakers were continuously losing and the NBA lacked public icons. Buss, a real estate tycoon, decides to buy the Lakers and turn them into something new. He’s essentially a man after a fresh form of show business. Buss meets with the current owners and strikes a deal for $15 million. The catch is he has about a month to come up with the cash. Yet the entrepreneur is full of confidence. He’s sure luck is on his side if he manages to recruit a spectacular prospect from Michigan, Earvin “Magic” Johnson Jr. (Quincy Isaiah). Magic has outshined everyone else at the NCAA title game. When the Lakers win the coin toss with the Bulls and thus a crack at Magic, Buss gets hard to work.

What “Winning Time” first establishes is a dynamic visual style. McKay sets the tone with a pilot that combines different film stocks and videotape for a stirring effect. Nostalgia is big right now in visual media but McKay really manages to make you feel as if you’re there in 1979. He gets even more experimental than in his brilliant 2018 Dick Cheney biopic, “Vice.” Where the show gets harder to grasp is in its maze of angles and characters. “Winning Time” forms a grand ensemble to explore the following: The rise of the NBA, the rise of the Lakers, the rise of Magic Johnson and finally, the transformation of professional basketball into flashy entertainment. In a sense all of this is interconnected. The series just wants to devour it all in one sitting. Some of the better moments show dramatically Buss’s foresight. He takes Magic to a Los Angeles night spot where they watch showgirls perform. Instantly, Buss sees where he wants to take the Lakers. It’s the very beginning of what would later be the Laker Girls. 

The casting is fantastic. Even if the roster feels jammed it is enjoyable to watch the different characters introduced. Buss’s daughter Jeanie (Hadley Robinson) is a former beauty queen who wants to get into business with her dad. She has quite a lot of good, rapid-fire ideas and observations to see Buss’s plans through. Jason Clarke plays Lakers coach Jerry West, who is haunted by having been the acclaimed player of a losing team. Gaby Hoffmann brings a focused intelligence to Claire Rothman, the right hand enduring the misogyny of Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke (Michael O’Keefe) before switching over to work for Buss. Basketball aficionados will be intrigued by the way notable NBA personalities are brought to life. There is hesitation from the Lakers owners to bring in Magic because they already have a strong point guard, Norm Nixon (DeVaughn Nixon, who is the son of the real player), as well as a star in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Solomon Hughes). Abdul-Jabbar gets portrayed as the real ego in the team who can be mean even to a child actor asking for an autograph on the set of “Airplane!” Quincy Isaiah stands out as Magic. He brings the necessary level of young overconfidence needed for the role. 

“Winning Time” does not focus so much on basketball games. It’s more about the ambition that you find in any large enterprise. John C. Reilly interprets Buss like a classic go-getter who has big visions and isn’t below begging his ex-wife for money so he can seal the Lakers deal. At first no one takes him too seriously. Where he has more business sense than the sharks that run the NBA is in spotting talent regardless of prejudice. One of the show’s more commendable angles is in its exploration of the deep racism that was still present at the time in pro sports. Figures like Cooke are hesitant to take on a new Black player like Magic when there is a white pick who might be more “reliable.” More of this angle would have been fascinating to explore. “Winning Time” has many worthy themes. It just seeks to cram them all into the equivalent of one TV essay spread out over multiple episodes. Buss’s motivations get buried under the details of building up the Lakers, which gets buried under the stories involving the different players. 

If you know nothing about NBA history, then “Winning Time” will be both exhaustive but also intriguing. It may be over-packed and scattered. Credit must be given to how it’s never too shallow. Professional sports are a business in the same way movies or publishing are also a mix of talent and commercialism. At its best “Winning Time” dissects how it all began. Soon after, the news would evolve in the same fashion. Now we live in a world where even the consumption of information has to dazzle somehow. Like an excellent game where your team loses by just a few points, this limited series can be admired for reaching high even if the basket is missed.

“Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” begins streaming March 6 with new episodes premiering Sundays on HBO Max.