The Los Angeles Lakers failed to make it to the playoffs this year. However, fans can still enjoy the franchise's legacy through the new drama series “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.” The HBO original, according to its IMDb, encapsulates “The professional and personal lives of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers…both on and off the court.”
While most opinions seem relatively positive for the dramatized biography, some reviews aren't as favorable. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of many Lakers legends portrayed in the series, is not a fan of “Winning Time” at all.
He shared his full review of the series Tuesday morning, calling it both “deliberately dishonest” and “drearily dull.” The six-time NBA champion said his opinion has nothing to do with the show's use of a dramatic license or the way that he is portrayed by actor Solomon Hughes.
The Lakers legend went on to explain his opinion, first calling the series boring. He attributed this to both a lack of humor and dull characterization.
“Each character is reduced to a single bold trait as if the writers were afraid anything more complex would tax the viewers’ comprehension. Jerry Buss is Egomaniac Entrepreneur, Jerry West is Crazed Coach, Magic Johnson is Sexual Simpleton, I’m Pompous Prick. They are caricatures, not characters,” he wrote.
Abdul-Jabbar went on to say that the series could potentially harm the legacies of the people being portrayed.
“The filmmakers deliberately avoided facts as if they were an STD…they replaced solid facts with flimsy cardboard fictions that don’t go deeper and offer no revealing insights,” he wrote.
According to Abdul-Jabbar, there is “an amazing, compelling, culturally insightful story” in the 1980s Lakers. However, this docuseries “just ain’t that story.”
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