Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty

Forgive me if this was touched on with a previous post, but apparently this series led to the fracture of the relationship of Adam McKay and Will Ferrell. Apparently, Will had his sights on himself playing Buss and was pissed when McKay went with Reilly without consulting him first.

 

Throw a Buss - stache on Ferrell and everyone would think it was Ron Burgundy.

Between the show and the actual Lakers season, been tough on Lakers fans.

 

I have to admit Sunday’s final scene made me cringe

 

Yeah. When I was 16 I went head over heels off my badass Schwinn Sprint 10-speed going about 30 mph, totally fracturing the front fork, flew about 40 feet in the air, landed semi side wise on my arm and shoulder, and miraculously didn't smash my head on the pavement. I pretty much walked away from that mess, but my arm was a sheet of scabs for a couple months.
So I could definitely relate with McKinney taking that header.
And very much unlike most of my Generation Jones cohorts, I've never chortled at the present-day emphasis on cyclists wearing helmets.

 

One plot point they've hit on several times is the premise that Jerry Buss regularly played two-person Monopoly against Jeannie.
Now let me ask you, who the hell ever plays two-person Monopoly? After you've been around the board once -- certainly after all the property is bought up -- it's completely goddamn obvious who is gonna win, and the only thing that can change it would be if one player proposes (and the other accepts) a whole series of crazy disastrous trades. How much fun is that?

 

I thought the grandma also played with them.

 

Oh, I thought it was first Jerry was playing with his mom, then she quit and Jeannie took over.

i know the whole thing is a subtle visual metaphor for Jerry throwing around real money like "monopoly money" in running the team. But still.

 

My cousin and I used to have some epic two-person Monopoly games. The key was that we would put $500 in the middle and put in all the fines from the cards (street repairs particularly sucked) or the Luxury Tax or Income Tax and whoever landed on Free Parking would win the pot. It got to the point where we would start using "bank accounts" if we started running out of cash on the bank.

 

Only child checking in here. You only get to play board games when you have a friend over or when you can only rope one parent into playing with you. The worst presents for me were games that required three players.

That all sounds sadder than it was. I had a happy childhood, I swear. Even if I never got to play Pit.

 

Did you ever play Connect 4 against yourself? And who won?

 

I should have taught our dog to play Connect 4.

 

If there was an Olympic team for getting your front bike tire stuck in a drainage grate, yinz would be talking to a gold medalist.