Two years ago, it was announced that HBO had picked up a scripted drama series, written by Adam McKay and based on Jeff Pearlman’s Showtime book, about the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s. Not much has been reported about the series since, with 2020 putting the TV production business in a holding pattern and numerous projects were shelved or pushed back.
However, it appears the series is still in the works, and we learned one major name that is now attached to star in it, as Variety brought word that Adrien Brody has signed on to portray a young Pat Riley for the series. It is, if nothing else, a pretty close casting choice in terms of look, and we’ll find out exactly how well Brody can channel Riley’s swagger and fire on the small screen. The rest of the casting decisions will be fascinating to see, as, most prominently, they have to find folks to play Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, and the rest of the Showtime crew.
Making a scripted drama about a basketball team brings plenty of challenges, but chief among them is finding actors who can believably portray players who tower over normal-sized humans — this isn’t a unique issue to basketball, as sometimes you get a very lean Cuba Gooding Jr. playing O.J. Simpson. In any case, Brody is now attached as Riley and with it on HBO, it stands to reason that they can really explore the full Showtime experience off the court, as the Lakers were the biggest stars in L.A. and enjoyed their status as such.