For those of you keeping score at home, we're nearly two weeks into HBO's Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, the Adam McKay-labeled, uber-stylized drama about the Showtime-era Lakers.
If you thought everyone would play nice while the series rolled merrily along, then you are sadly mistaken. Notably, Magic Johnson—played by newcomer Quincy Isaiah in the series—has been increasingly (and characteristically) vocal about his thoughts regarding the series, which dramatizes fellow Lakers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jerry West along with himself. Back in December, before Winning Time debuted, Johnson quipped to TMZ that he was "not looking forward" to the series.
Now, at Apple TV+’s premiere of The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, Johnson was happy to explain why, exactly, he's not a fan of the series—despite the fact that the show positions his likeness as its protagonist. “It’s hard. I won’t watch it because it’s hard to duplicate,” Johnson told Entertainment Tonight. “You can’t duplicate Showtime.”
“I’m not gonna watch," he continued. "Now, if the Lakers or myself or some Lakers have something to do with it, then I would, but it’s just, you can’t copy that, it’s just too much...
First, on the court, I mean, we just did our thing, it was up and down. And then off the court—because unless you were a Laker, or you’re a Buss family [member], because you can’t duplicate Dr. Jerry Buss—and the Laker Girls and Paula Abdul and what that meant, I mean, it started on the court and it went all the way up.”
Maybe Magic will come around by the time Winning Time's first season wraps, but we doubt it. He's participating in two documentary series over the next year: Apple TV+'s They Call Me Magic, and an untitled Hulu project about the '80s Lakers as a whole. Maybe Johnson just wants to build some Last Dance-esque hype for those two events. Either way, we'll take all the Showtime we can get.
