The long-awaited teaser for HBO Max’s Lakers TV show is here, and boy is it glorious. Take a look at the teaser trailer below for the recently named Winning Time.
Style. Pizzazz. Basketball.#WinningTime, a new @HBO original series from Adam McKay, comes to HBO Max in March. pic.twitter.com/4KZsJjAaJy
— HBO Max (@hbomax) December 9, 2021
The scripted drama revolves around the Showtime team of the 80s, and is inspired by Jeff Pearlman’s book titled Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s. The show is co-created by Jim Hecht, Max Borenstein, but most notably Adam McKay. McKay has directed recent, successful dramas such as The Big Short, Vice, and the upcoming Don’t Look Up which will be debuting on Netflix later this month. He’s also an executive producer on the very popular HBO Max show Succession.
The most notable face that people will recognize belongs to John C. Reilly who is a near spitting image of the late, great Dr. Jerry Buss. This casting has been in the news recently, as it was originally supposed to be comedy great Will Ferrell in the role until McKay thought Reilly would be better suited. The change has caused McKay and Ferrell, one of the best duos in comedy in the past 20 or 30 years, to have a falling out in their relationship.
Reilly has starred in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby as well as Step Brothers, a couple of McKay’s comedies that he directed in the 2000s. He seems to be the star of the show, with Quincy Isaiah co-starring as Magic Johnson. McKay recently interviewed with The Hollywood Reporter, pointing out how much Reilly looked like Buss while also praising Isaiah’s acting as a relative newcomer to the scene.
First look at John C. Reilly, Quincy Isaiah, Adrien Brody, and Jason Segel as Jerry Buss, Magic Johnson, Pat Riley, and Paul Westhead in the upcoming #WinningTime series pic.twitter.com/FLkOLM0P0E
— Lights, Camera, Pod (@LightsCameraPod) December 9, 2021
There are a litany of notable Lakers players, coaches, and front office members in this such as Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Pat Riley, and Jeanie Buss among others. One of the cooler casting decisions was that of Lakers player Norm Nixon who is being played by his own son, DeVaughn Nixon.
Sounds like we’re getting a Succession-esque show about the Lakers with possibly 3 seasons! https://t.co/fu8ktZTxPy pic.twitter.com/OQWKXnWPv0
— Donny McHenry (@donny_mchenry) December 8, 2021
Also in that interview with The Hollywood Reporter, McKay noted that the first season of the series will include 10 episodes, with McKay hoping for a second and third season at least. That means we’re due for nearly 30 hours of scripted television about the Lakers from one of the most genius filmmakers and TV producers of our generation.
Lakers fans…we are so lucky.
Don’t miss the show when it debuts on HBO Max sometime in March!
