Last year, the HBO series “Winning Time,” which is a fictionalized portrayal of the Los Angeles Lakers’ dynastic teams of the 1980s, premiered and garnered a great deal of attention.
While some of that attention was negative, especially the comments that came from the people who were portrayed in the series, plenty of viewers enjoyed it, even if some of the historical details were a bit off to make for a more dramatic storytelling of the NBA’s golden age.
For those who loved the series, there is good news. A second season will reportedly hit the airwaves very soon, reportedly to coincide with this spring’s NBA playoffs.
Hearing Season 2 of WINNING TIME will hit HBO this Spring/Summer, with heavy promotion again timed to the NBA playoffs. Loved Season 1, can't wait for it to return (along with BARRY and, hopefully, CURB). pic.twitter.com/43bzOVV16j
— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) March 21, 2023
According to Max Borenstein, the show’s co-creator, the second season will continue at about the same pace as the first season and deal with some of the internal issues the Lakers had to tackle after their first championship.
Via Deadline:
“So yeah, this next season is going to be, you know, taking the same pace that this first season did, roughly, to tell the next piece of the story. Which involves Paul Westhead and Pat Riley, and a struggle Magic (Johnson) has that next year, and Jerry West’s next step in the direction of becoming the general manager. There’s a lot of transitional stuff that starts to happen in that next season.”
In the 1980-81 campaign of the Showtime era, the season that “Winning Time” will presumably portray when it resumes (spoiler alert), the Purple and Gold were hit with adversity as Johnson missed much of the schedule with a knee injury, there was dissension between him and his teammates, the squad lost in the first round of the playoffs and owner Dr. Jerry Buss continued with the trials and tribulations of being a new NBA owner.
Get ready for the slow, building storytelling of the challenges that helped turn the Purple and Gold from a one-hit wonder into arguably the greatest team in league history.
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