NBA, the Lakers and Winning Time's subjects "allegedly detest its very existence," but HBO is already looking ahead at a Kobe-Shaq-Phil season

The Hollywood Reporter

The Hollywood Reporter goes behind the scenes of the Adam McKay-produced Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, the HBO series based on Jeff Pearlman's Showtime Lakers book that has been eight years in the making, with the biggest challenge casting actors to play Magic Johnson or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. "The show, for which McKay and company are already prepping a second season, hasn’t been without its share of behind-the-scenes drama, including the proverbial nail in the coffin of one of Hollywood’s most fruitful creative partnerships (more on that later)," reports The Hollywood Reporter's Lacey Rose. "The Lakers, now run by Jerry Buss’ daughter Jeanie Buss (played by Hadley Robinson), the NBA and the athletes that Winning Time portrays — none of whom are profiting from the series, much less have any creative input — allegedly detest its very existence. League lawyers have reached out about the use of NBA trademarks and logos, HBO confirms; and at least a few associated with the Showtime Lakers era have expressed concerns about a series with no plans to whitewash the unsavory parts of NBA life. Johnson, who has his own docuseries coming to Apple TV+ in the spring, declared he’s 'not looking forward to it,' and Abdul-Jabbar (a longtime THR contributor) has said 'the story of the Showtime Lakers is best told by those who actually lived through it.' Both will participate in a Lakers-sanctioned docuseries being released by Hulu this year." As Rose notes, "early on, the writers made a unilateral decision not to engage any of the series’ central characters, save former Lakers guard Norm Nixon, with whom they’ve forged a casual relationship through his actor son, DeVaughn, who plays a younger version of him in the show." Rose also goes into the recasting of Michael Shannon -- who didn't like the breaking of the fourth wall in his Jerry Buss role -- with John C. Reilly, who had less than 48 hours to make a decision, during which time he reached out to Will Ferrell, who had wanted to play Buss. Meanwhile, Rose reports, HBO has quietly optioned the rights to Pearlman's book Three-Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty on the Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O'Neal-Phil Jackson Lakers.