Fans of the HBO series Winning Time might be enjoying the throwback outfits and John C. Reilly’s hairstyles, but people who were actually there are not huge fans of the basketball show, which is based on Jeff Pearlman’s book Showtime.
Though the show is a fictitious telling of Lakers’ history, the real people who are being portrayed on screen haven’t been happy with it. Last week, Lakers legend Jerry West demanded an apology from HBO over his“false and defamatory portrayal” in the series.
HBO didn’t buy it! In a statement made to The Hollywood Reporter, the network insists that the show is not a documentary, and there are creative liberties that were taken for the drama of it all.
HBO has a long history of producing compelling content drawn from actual facts and events that are fictionalized in part for dramatic purposes. Winning Time is not a documentary and has not been presented as such. However, the series and its depictions are based on extensive factual research and reliable sourcing, and HBO stands resolutely behind our talented creators and cast who have brought a dramatization of this epic chapter in basketball history to the screen.
West isn’t the first person to critique the series: basketball great Kareen Abdul-Jabbar also slammed the show in a personal blog post (that’s how you know it’s real), saying the show is not only inaccurate but “dull” and “bland.” He did have some pretty solid research to back it up too! Either way, it doesn’t seem like HBO will care. They already made the show, after all.