Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty

I will say, watching this show helped me lower my percentage in today's NBA Crossover Grid for Lakers and 1+ NBA championships.

 

IIRC Jeff Pearlman teased the Riley presser is in this week's episode.

 

Really another wheel-spinning episode tonight that probably could have been summed up in 10 minutes of screen time.

The Riley presser was appropriately weird. Nobody knew walking in the door who was really the head coach.

 

Storyline was a bit of a mess. According to Ostler/Springer book, decision to fire Westhead was made BEFORE the Magic outburst in Salt Lake City. But West told Buss to hold off a few days so they could scout replacements.

The SLC incident made Buss regret not pulling the trigger sooner, because he knew Magic would get the blame. Buss' real quote after the Magic outburst: "If we fire Westhead now, people will THINK it's because of Magic. But if we don't fire him, it WILL be because of Magic."

 

Again with the caveat of that it’s highly fictionalized, I thought the most recent episode was highly entertaining. The casting really is remarkable too.

 

So has it appeared yet? Or do I need to rewatch one of the first five to find it?

 

Sigh.. I watched the first two episodes, and I just couldn't watch that dreck. It was a pepsi machine. It's got to be in a locker room or something.
Anyone see one, please shout out.

 

One of my college roommates had a vintage Pepsi machine, pretty sure from the '50s. Still worked, vended the small glass bottles. We, of course, packed it with beer cans, which fit just about right. Had to open it to get a beer, but it was sooooo cold and refreshing. As cold as you can get without being frozen.

It weighed a metric fuck-ton. To get it out of his Aunt's basement, we had to tie a rope around it and pull it up with a truck. Rope broke on the first attempt. Thankfully it wasn't too far up, nobody was under it. And we didn't break it.

 

I know it may have been accentuated by costume, but it's remarkable how much Jay Mohr is now in his "Fat Elvis" phase.

And funny to think Jeannie Buss' actual husband is involved in the series that doesn't have any official endorsement from any real entity.

And Norm Nixon's actual son grinding up against an actress playing his own mother. Awwwkward.

 

Might just being my childhood nostalgia taking over, but really loved the new episode. The stretch from Kareem’s locker room speech after the fire until the end with Buss/Red speeches and breaking the fourth wall on the rivalry … that was maybe the most entertaining of the series. I was kinda fired up.

The montage of the 1984 playoffs setting up the Finals was incredibly well done.

The look/style of the show is very fun.

 

Last stretch of his life, when he was president of the Celtics, Red Auerbach worked out of an office in DC, where he got his professional start.

One day, my aunt told me she worked in the same building that Red had his office in, and she asked if I would like to meet him one day. Move into the summer of '95, and my dad and I got the chance to spend about an hour in Red's office to chat one day (yes, there was a lit cigar going along), which was like a museum of his career, and then he left in his red convertible.

Also got an autographed 8x10 portrait of Red, a Bird jersey and a program from the last game at the Garden. Same trip, my dad and I also went to Cooperstown, Springfield (the old hoops hall) and I won a portable color TV at a Richmond Braves game.

Maybe he mellowed over time, or it was because I was a 13-year-old boy, but Red was definitely not the ruthless, take-no-prisoners boss he's being portrayed as in Winning Time.