Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty

In Wilt's first book he took a little shot at West for doing more sulking than celebrating after that first Lakers title in 1972. West actually had a horrible shooting series (38 of 117, .325), and Wilt said, "Jerry couldn't handle not being 'Mr. Clutch.'''

He did average 8.8 assists and 4 rebounds, so did some things well.

 

Gail Goodrich was the scorer in that series for the Lakers. Meanwhile, Wilt averaged 23 rebounds a game. Averaged a little over 47 minutes a game, too.

 

24 points and 29 rebounds in Game 5 . . . with a broken hand.

Flu game, schmu game.

 

In that book, Wilt also dropped some hints about some "white-bread All-American" Lakers also doing a fair amount of late-night screwing around, and supposedly he (Wilt) was the only one who caught hell about it.
Right after recounting a story about Kim Novak having spent most of a transatlantic flight with her head buried in his lap.

 

Last night's episode seemed to tread water in many ways.
Julius Erving is portrayed as somewhat of a dingbat (kind of a takeoff of the Fish That Saved Pittsburgh character).

Plus we're introduced to the conspiracy theory that the 3-point shot was adopted by the NBA as a ploy to allow Larry Bird to become a superstar.
Speaking of dingbats, Jerry West, after spending most of the series depicted as a drunken raging clown, suddenly starts dispensing profound Obi-Wan Kenobi wisdom.

 

SNL should do a Winning Time-style parody of Air Bud called Barking Time.

 

They have done a good job of matching the actors to the players they are portraying but not with Dr. J. David Lesure is 51, and he looked too old for the role.

And the Lakers didn't get Bob McAdoo for two more years, so I don't know where that fits other than setting up a later scene with Spencer Haywood.

 

Jerry West having multiple nervous breakdowns listening to the game from the limo in the bowels of Boston Garden was over the top, even for this show.

 

I think you can see what they were going for with Lesure as Dr. J and he actually fits to play an older one. It was kinda distracting because the other choices have been really good that it sticks out. When he showed up I didn't know who it was at first.

 

Interesting. From what I've read, West rarely traveled to road games ... even the Finals.

 

The actor playing Dr. J looks like he’s 55 years old with a beer gut.

 

So, they casted Joe Barry Carroll?