This article contains spoilers for “Winning Time” Episodes 9 and 10.
After nine episodes of ups and downs, the season finale of “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” finally showed us what the title is all about. The show began with the Lakers drafting Earvin “Magic” Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) before the start of the 1979 season, so it’s only natural that it ends with the 1980 NBA championships.
With the coaching drama between Jack McKinney (Tracy Letts), Paul Westhead (Jason Segel) and Pat Riley (Adrien Brody) resolved at last (for now – “Winning Time” has already been renewed for a second season), the focus of the final episode rests on the Lakers’ last two games against the Philadelphia 76ers.
While “Winning Time” has been always been liberal with dramatic license, the season finale reflects just how theatrical Games 5 and 6 actually were. Like Magic said after winning the championship, “It’s unbelievable” – at least it would be,...
After nine episodes of ups and downs, the season finale of “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” finally showed us what the title is all about. The show began with the Lakers drafting Earvin “Magic” Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) before the start of the 1979 season, so it’s only natural that it ends with the 1980 NBA championships.
With the coaching drama between Jack McKinney (Tracy Letts), Paul Westhead (Jason Segel) and Pat Riley (Adrien Brody) resolved at last (for now – “Winning Time” has already been renewed for a second season), the focus of the final episode rests on the Lakers’ last two games against the Philadelphia 76ers.
While “Winning Time” has been always been liberal with dramatic license, the season finale reflects just how theatrical Games 5 and 6 actually were. Like Magic said after winning the championship, “It’s unbelievable” – at least it would be,...
- 5/10/2022
- by Harper Lambert
- The Wrap
‘Winning Time’ Season Finale Delivers Another Series High With 1.6M Viewers Across All HBO Platforms
HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty scored yet another series high with its freshman season finale on Sunday. The season ender, which featured tense moments from the ’79-’80 NBA finals, drew in 1.6 million total viewers across both HBO and HBO Max.
The finale was up 73 from the season premiere’s original viewership. The debut brought in approximately 900,000 viewers and has since grown to nearly 8 million. In linear viewing, the finale earned 534,000 viewers, more than double than that of the premiere.
Episodes are currently averaging 6 million viewers. Sunday’s also episode marked the seventh week of consecutive viewership growth for the sports series.
Winning Time‘s season finale featured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s ankle injury, Jerry Buss coping with his mother’s death, a contentious Rookie of The Year decision and more. Read Deadline’s full recap here. Series showrunner and executive producer Max Borenstein told Deadline where Winning Time,...
The finale was up 73 from the season premiere’s original viewership. The debut brought in approximately 900,000 viewers and has since grown to nearly 8 million. In linear viewing, the finale earned 534,000 viewers, more than double than that of the premiere.
Episodes are currently averaging 6 million viewers. Sunday’s also episode marked the seventh week of consecutive viewership growth for the sports series.
Winning Time‘s season finale featured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s ankle injury, Jerry Buss coping with his mother’s death, a contentious Rookie of The Year decision and more. Read Deadline’s full recap here. Series showrunner and executive producer Max Borenstein told Deadline where Winning Time,...
- 5/9/2022
- by Alexandra Del Rosario
- Deadline Film + TV
A review of this week’s Winning Time, “Memento Mori,” coming up just as soon as I ask not to be buzzard fucked…
Two of the three main stories of “Memento Mori” involve making the best of a bad situation in the moment, while the third seems to involve someone taking advantage of a great situation and instead making the worst possible choice.
The hour is primarily concerned, unsurprisingly, with the aftermath of Jack McKinney’s brutal bicycle accident from the end of “Pieces of a Man.” Though Jack looked...
Two of the three main stories of “Memento Mori” involve making the best of a bad situation in the moment, while the third seems to involve someone taking advantage of a great situation and instead making the worst possible choice.
The hour is primarily concerned, unsurprisingly, with the aftermath of Jack McKinney’s brutal bicycle accident from the end of “Pieces of a Man.” Though Jack looked...
- 4/11/2022
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Rollingstone.com
Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for “Memento Mori,” the April 10 episode of “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” which is now streaming on HBO Max.
The Los Angeles Lakers are starting to turn over a new leaf on Episode 6 of “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.” Earvin “Magic” Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Solomon Hughes) are proving to be a formidable offensive duo, owner Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) has launched his basketball Mecca in a revamped Inglewood Forum and the team is even stringing together a few wins as it heads into the 1980s. Oh, and head coach Jack McKinney (Tracy Letts) has suffered a near-fatal bicycle accident, putting himself in a coma and leaving the team without a courtside leader.
Suddenly, assistant coach Paul Westhead (Jason Segel) finds himself in the hot seat, asked to take the helm of an organization that...
The Los Angeles Lakers are starting to turn over a new leaf on Episode 6 of “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.” Earvin “Magic” Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Solomon Hughes) are proving to be a formidable offensive duo, owner Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) has launched his basketball Mecca in a revamped Inglewood Forum and the team is even stringing together a few wins as it heads into the 1980s. Oh, and head coach Jack McKinney (Tracy Letts) has suffered a near-fatal bicycle accident, putting himself in a coma and leaving the team without a courtside leader.
Suddenly, assistant coach Paul Westhead (Jason Segel) finds himself in the hot seat, asked to take the helm of an organization that...
- 4/11/2022
- by J. Kim Murphy
- Variety Film + TV
[Warning: The below contains spoilers from Season 1, Episode 6, “Memento Mori”] Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty Out of tragedy comes opportunity for Jason Segel’s Paul Westhead on Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. The Los Angeles assistant coach finds himself stepping in for head coach Jack McKinney (Tracy Letts), who is clinging to life in an ICU bed after a devastating bicycle accident. With the schedule in full swing and the NBA team’s hope to keep McKinney’s health status out of the headlines, Westhead is thrust into the spotlight as the interim man in charge. The proverbial student must now become the teacher while also managing the clash of personalities between Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Solomon Hughes). Not to mention owner Dr. Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) putting the pressure on Westhead to win with literally everything on the line. Who said basketball was just a game? Here Segel sits...
- 4/11/2022
- TV Insider
John C. Reilly plays Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss in the HBO series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. Buss recruited Magic Johnson and turned the Lakers around beginning the late 1970s. Although Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was already on the team, Reilly said Buss’s color-blind recruiting paved the way for his success.
Contenders TV — Deadline’s Complete Coverage
“If we’re going to be frank, his super power was that he wasn’t racist,” Reilly said on a Deadline Contenders TV panel Sunday at the Paramount Theatre. “That was a radical thing to do at the time. The support of the Black community and everyone who spoke at his memorial shows you that I think that was his super power. To really see people, see who they were and what they could contribute and what they were capable of.”
Reilly said Buss also crossed gender barriers by giving his daughter,...
Contenders TV — Deadline’s Complete Coverage
“If we’re going to be frank, his super power was that he wasn’t racist,” Reilly said on a Deadline Contenders TV panel Sunday at the Paramount Theatre. “That was a radical thing to do at the time. The support of the Black community and everyone who spoke at his memorial shows you that I think that was his super power. To really see people, see who they were and what they could contribute and what they were capable of.”
Reilly said Buss also crossed gender barriers by giving his daughter,...
- 4/10/2022
- by Fred Topel
- Deadline Film + TV
A review of this week’s Winning Time, “Who the F**k is Jack McKinney,” coming up just as soon as we kill the duck…
If not for the unfortunate fact of HBO’s longtime pay-cable rival having the same name, Winning Time would have come into this world known as Showtime. That’s the title of the Jeff Pearlman book from which the series is adapted, derived from the nickname that was bestowed upon this entire Lakers era of Magic and Kareem, the Jerrys Buss and West, Pat Riley,...
If not for the unfortunate fact of HBO’s longtime pay-cable rival having the same name, Winning Time would have come into this world known as Showtime. That’s the title of the Jeff Pearlman book from which the series is adapted, derived from the nickname that was bestowed upon this entire Lakers era of Magic and Kareem, the Jerrys Buss and West, Pat Riley,...
- 3/28/2022
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Rollingstone.com
Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for “Who the F**k is Jack McKinney?,” the March 27 episode of “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” which is now streaming on HBO Max.
Like every other episode of HBO’s “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” Sunday’s episode picks up with the Los Angeles Lakers organization pinned against a wall, this time scrummaging for a new head coach after the abrupt resignation of Jerry West (Jason Clarke). With a Palm Springs pre-season training camp on the horizon, the Lakers land on a man who might have more ideas than they’ve bargained for, leading owner Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) to bellow over the phone, “Who the fuck is Jack McKinney?”
Tracy Letts had the same question when he was asked to play the Lakers coach on the series. Although the actor, playwright and Chicago theater mainstay...
Like every other episode of HBO’s “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” Sunday’s episode picks up with the Los Angeles Lakers organization pinned against a wall, this time scrummaging for a new head coach after the abrupt resignation of Jerry West (Jason Clarke). With a Palm Springs pre-season training camp on the horizon, the Lakers land on a man who might have more ideas than they’ve bargained for, leading owner Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) to bellow over the phone, “Who the fuck is Jack McKinney?”
Tracy Letts had the same question when he was asked to play the Lakers coach on the series. Although the actor, playwright and Chicago theater mainstay...
- 3/28/2022
- by J. Kim Murphy
- Variety Film + TV
A review of this week’s Winning Time, “The Good Life,” coming up just as soon as we attend the premiere of The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh…
Midway through “The Good Life,” Magic Johnson joins the rest of the Lakers for the world premiere of The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, a 1979 basketball comedy which features several of his new teammates in small roles. Before we can talk more about this episode, we must first discuss a few things about one of the most infamous sports movies ever made:
1) The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh...
Midway through “The Good Life,” Magic Johnson joins the rest of the Lakers for the world premiere of The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, a 1979 basketball comedy which features several of his new teammates in small roles. Before we can talk more about this episode, we must first discuss a few things about one of the most infamous sports movies ever made:
1) The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh...
- 3/21/2022
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Rollingstone.com
HBO ushered viewers back to the starting days of the Los Angeles Lakers with new series Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty making its premiere on Sunday. The series from co-creators Max Borenstein and Jim Hecht debuted to just shy of 1 million viewers.
Per HBO, the series opened to approximately 900,000 viewers across linear viewing and HBO Max streaming. Winning Time filled the 9 p.m. Sunday slot previously belonging to Euphoria. To compare the dramas, Euphoria made its series premiere in June 2019 to 577,00 linear viewers and boosted up to 1 million viewers with viewing on HBO Go/Now, before HBO Max launched. The Euphoria season 2 premiere broke records for HBO and HBO Max with 2.4 million total viewers.
Winning Time is a ten-episode series about the professional and personal lives of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers, one of sports’ most revered and dominant dynasties — a team that defined an era, both on and off the court.
Per HBO, the series opened to approximately 900,000 viewers across linear viewing and HBO Max streaming. Winning Time filled the 9 p.m. Sunday slot previously belonging to Euphoria. To compare the dramas, Euphoria made its series premiere in June 2019 to 577,00 linear viewers and boosted up to 1 million viewers with viewing on HBO Go/Now, before HBO Max launched. The Euphoria season 2 premiere broke records for HBO and HBO Max with 2.4 million total viewers.
Winning Time is a ten-episode series about the professional and personal lives of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers, one of sports’ most revered and dominant dynasties — a team that defined an era, both on and off the court.
- 3/8/2022
- by Alexandra Del Rosario
- Deadline Film + TV
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