Last year, HBO debuted a new series titled ‘Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,’ a fictional drama based on the Jeff Pearlman book ‘Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s.’ The show was a hit and HBO would green light Season 2 of the series, which will pick up where the first season left off.
Season 1 focused solely on the 1979-80 season for the Lakers, starting with Dr. Jerry Buss, played by John C. Reilly, purchasing the team, the drafting of Magic Johnson, and all of the trials and tribulations the team went through, eventually leading to the team winning the NBA Championship. It did cause some drama as well, however, with many people being unhappy with how they were portrayed in the show.
But regardless of that, the second season of the hit show will go on and is set to premiere on Aug. 6 on HBO Max. The official trailer has been released and it is sure to get everyone excited about what is to come, via Stream On Max:
The future of sports is purple and gold. New decade. New season.
The HBO Original Series #WinningTime premieres August 6 on Max. pic.twitter.com/niblFf5CtO
— Max (@StreamOnMax) June 12, 2023
Unlike the first season, which focused on one year, Season 2 looks to be a multi-year story. In addition to the drama within the Lakers’ own locker room, the rivalry between the Lakers and Celtics as well as Johnson and Larry Bird are featured heavily in the promotion as well.
This would be in line with a casting call that was released last summer looking for actors to play James Worthy, Byron Scott, Mitch Kupchak and others. Those players all joined the Lakers in the early to mid-1980s so all being part of this season would show that it covers many years. With the exception of 1983, the Lakers and Celtics basically traded the NBA Championship between 1980 and 1987, facing off three times in 1984, ’85 and ’87.
There are a number of ways this season can go with plenty of stories to tell and if it is anything like the first season, it will be must-watch.
Lakers’ Robert Horry reveals origins of ‘1, 2, 3 Cancun’
With the success of ‘Winning Time’ focusing on the Showtime era of Lakers basketball, there are some hoping it continues and eventually changes focus to the Kobe-Shaq era which has its own outstanding story of growth within the team. As that era was trying to get over the hump, an infamous story of the team breaking a huddle with ‘1, 2, 3 Cancun’ as they were losing in the Western Conference Finals spread and was a bad look for those on the team.
But Robert Horry has believes that was taken out of context and recently revealed the origin of that moment. On a recent podcast appearance, Horry noted that point guard Nick Van Exel was trying to get the team to loosen up and not play so tight as their backs were already against the wall facing elimination. But Horry insists the team was not checked out and looking towards vacation in that moment.
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