‘Winning Time’ is not a documentary, HBO Show’s high-profile critics say – newsdubai

HBOs Winning time begins with a disclaimer warning the audience that the show will dramatize “certain facts and events.” But that does not deter it from many of the series’ real themes. With two episodes left of the first season, a trio of high-profile Winning time critics have appeared in former Los Angeles Lakers players Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, as well as former head coach and general manager Jerry West.

Now HBO has decided to go on the defensive.

On Tuesday, the network issued another statement The Hollywood Reporter, which reads: “HBO has a long history of producing compelling content drawn from factual facts and events that are fictionalized in part for dramatic purposes. Winning time is not a documentary and has not been presented as such. But the series and its depictions are based on extensive fact-finding and reliable sources, and HBO is resolutely behind our talented creators and cast, who have brought a dramatization of this epic chapter in basketball history to the screen. “

HBO series, created by Max Borenstein and Jim Hecht and produced by Adam McKay, tells of the Los Angeles Lakers’ emergence in their “Showtime” era in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Inspired by Jeff Pearlman‘s book Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty in the 1980s, the series has drawn anger from many of its actual characters.

Last week, Abdul-Jabbar (played by Solomon Hughes) dedicated a Substack post to run the show as “deliberately dishonest” and “boringly boring.” Before that, Johnson (played by Quincy Isaiah) criticized the project and told Variety, “First, you can not make a story about the Lakers without the Lakers.” Neither he nor Abdul-Jabbar is involved in Winning time). Showtime‘s author rejected Johnson’s comment, which tweeted: “This annoys me to hell. To Showtime, I took all possible paths when it came to interviewing @MagicJohnson, and was repeatedly rejected. So hey. Consider the source. “

With a more aggressive approach, West wrote a letter to Warner Bros. last Tuesday. Discovery, HBO and Winning time manufacturers McKay and Kevin Messick through his lawyer, Skip Miller, who demanded a withdrawal of his “false and defamatory production.” Played by Jason Clarke in the series, the letter claims that “Jerry West in Winning time has no resemblance to the real man “, and that the show has” reduced the legacy of an 83-year-old legend and role model to a vulgar and unprofessional bully – the opposite of the real man. “(At the time, McKay, Messick, HBO and Warner Bros. Discovery not immediately on Vanity Fair‘s request for comment.)

West has now reportedly threatened to escalate its lawsuit “all the way to the Supreme Court”, as reported by Los Angeles Times. Despite this public buh, Winning time has already been renewed for another season at HBO.

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