Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty

West won't pursue any lawsuit because that would open him up to discovery, and if the producers could come up with any evidence, even anecdotal, that West did engage in any of the behaviors depicted, they'd probably get off clean on the basis of the disclaimer ("certain events have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes").
West himself has written (in "West By West," which I'm currently reading) that he has frequently chucked clubs around the golf course. As I've noted a couple times, Wilt alluded in a couple books that West's squeaky clean family man image might have been somewhat flawed.
Of course Wilt's been dead 20 years, so whatever he had written for him in pseudoautobiographies 30 and 50 years ago wouldn't stand up as evidence in court, but if they dig up one 75 year old former cocktail waitress or airline stewardess to testify (or even sound believeable) that Jerry West fucked her one night in 1972, the lawsuit goes down the toilet.

And yeah, the last episode particularly showed West in a much better light, in the scene in which he and Magic talk, one on one, about what it takes to win.

The series has been in the can for some time now, but you gotta wonder if maybe they were looking at the early cuts of the previous episodes, and somebody said, "Jesus, we've made Jerry West look like quite an asshole so far, we probably better put in some scenes that make him look good."

 

Is anything that they assert outright fiction? Did Magic impregnate Cookie's friend? Did he and Kareem come to blows in the trainers room? Was Riley brought on by Westphall and feuded with McKinney? BTW, I don't think they ever said. What is Dr. Buss' doctorate in? Is it real?

 

Buss was a PhD in chemistry (USC, 1957, after a Masters at Wyoming). Even taught there for a while.

 

FWIW two of my favorite movies are Eight Men Out and The Untouchables. Neither is that closely related to the truth (especially the latter). Maybe because this is an era of basketball so many people remember/watched/lived through they take offense at the portrayal (especially those who were actually part of the Lakers), but personally I think people just need to chill the F out and realize it's a TV show not a documentary (like, you know, every movie and TV show "based on actual events").

 

Buss had a PhD in chemistry from USC. I think he worked for the Bureau of Mines or whatever it's called and also taught at USC. No word on how many students he slept with, though...

 

Wikipedia says Magic fathered a child with a woman named Melissa Mitchell in 1981. He married Cookie in 1991 and had Earvin III and adopted a girl.

Google seems to agree those are the only three kids he has, unless he's been that good shielding any other pregnancies.

 

He's a Wyoming graduate and also has an honorary doctorate from there.

 

Talk about stringing a girl along…..making her wait that long to finally get married

It would sound then like Rhonda is a composite of several girls from that time

 

I have an odd memory that keeps coming up. I was in college a few years after Magic announced he had HIV. A friend told me his high school teacher told him Magic either was gay or fucked everything that moved to get the HIV.

 

Or both.

 

Was the high school teacher in any position to know, ie, was he Magic Johnson's high school teacher, or just some random schmoe high school teacher?

Now in my junior high and high school and college years, I did have occasion to go to some parties where Earvin Johnson happened to be at. I don't think he knew me -- hell, I'm sure he didn't-- beyond maybe a nodding "hey man" from the schoolyard hoops days; I was known as "Wes Walton" in the pickup games because of my resemblance to Wes Unseld in body type and to Bill Walton facially with long hippie red hair. But he certainly did know some of my HS buds on the varsity team.

There is some allusion to this in the Apple+ documentary (or maybe it's the HBO Magic/Bird doc) in which Magic talks about being invited to white-boy keggers in and around Lansing which started early, featured bad music and plenty of beer. ("Dazed and Confused" is another valuable documentary resource on mid-70s keggers in the days of the 18-year-old drinking age.)

I didn't go to Lansing Everett HS, but one of the ones nearby, and there was some social interaction in those years. I will say that anybody planning a kegger, if any planning did go on, would be happy to have Magic Johnson show up, because one thing was certain: at any party where Magic Johnson showed up, so would lots and lots and lots of girls.

There'd be long ones, tall ones, short ones, brown ones, black ones, white ones, round ones, big ones, crazy ones ... Ok, you get it.

Anyway, although I certainly was not ever privy to any of of Magic Johnson's actual bedroom activities, I can certainly attest that from high school onward, he had abundant and frequent opportunities with females of every description.

Now whether he was involved in any same sex activities, I couldn't tell you either way. In the 1970s that was something that was rarely talked about by anybody in pretty much any context. In the planning for some of our HS reunions in the 90s or maybe early 2000s, one of my fairly good friends from back to grade school days, announced to the whole class, through an email bomb, that he was coming out, he was gay, he'd been gay all along, was it going to be a problem if he brought his partner to the reunion, etc etc.

The general reaction was, "hmm, ok, that's interesting, kinda guessed it all along, but never knew for sure, bring anybody you want and it should be fine."

I did talk with a couple of my old girlfriends from those bygone days, who said, "oh yeah, we all knew (he) was gay. Girls have ways to find out, and girls talk." OK.

So Magic Johnson MIGHT have been involved in same sex activities, but I would never have known it either way.

 

I don't think so. It was just some random opinion from a high school teacher that wasn't necessary. There could be a whole thread on those. I had a teacher praise General Franco.