The Popcorn Stand: Sharman and Winning Time

I’ve written one of my favorite movie lines is spoken at the end of the film “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”: “When the legend becomes truth, print the legend.”

That line came to mind as I’ve finally got around to begin watching last year’s season 1 of the HBO series, “Winning Time,” which chronicles the rise of the Los Angeles Lakers dynasty in the 1980s. I’ve been meaning to watch the series because of course I wanted to see how or even if 1944 Porterville High graduate Bill Sharman was portrayed in the series.

Sharman has been mentioned in what I’ve watched so far. And of course I’m biased but after what I’ve watched so far I’m just as adamant as ever Sharman doesn’t get the credit he deserves for being an architect of the Lakers dynasty in the 1980s.

Of course watching “Winning Times” so far, it’s difficult to separate truth from legend as it’s clear the series takes a lot of license, especially in the way Jerry West is portrayed. And it’s the typical HBO show with a lot of gratuitous foul language and other, well let’s just say, stuff, that I don’t think is really necessary.

The beginning of the series of what I watched so far centers a great deal around the Lakers selecting Magic Johnson with the first overall pick in the 1979 NBA draft. Sharman was the Lakers’ general manager at the time.

Of course Sharman came to the Lakers and spent the rest of his career with the team after leading the Los Angeles Lakers to the 1971-1972 NBA title as their head coach. Again I’m biased, but I still maintain that’s the greatest team in NBA history. And Sharman’s 1971-1972 Lakers team set a major sports record of 33 straight wins that may never be broken.

When I asked about how he was able to work it out as general manager to draft Johnson, Sharman as always was genuine and unassuming in taking little credit when it came to selecting him.

And yes there was luck involved — specifically a coin flip. The Los Angeles Lakers owned the rights to the New Orleans Jazz first round draft pick. In 1978-1979, the Jazz just happened to have the Eastern Conference’s worst record.

Meanwhile the Chicago Bulls had the worst record in the Western Conference. Back then the No. 1 overall draft pick was determined by a coin flip involving the two teams with the worst record in each conference.

And since the Lakers had the rights to the Jazz pick, the coin flip was between the Lakers and Bulls. The coin flip is briefly portrayed in “Winning Times.”

But what wasn’t portrayed was the Chicago Bulls actually held a contest in which the fans determined the call of the flip of the coin. Then Bulls general manager Rod Thorn asked Sharman, then the Lakers general manager, to let him call the flip of the coin as he wanted to hold the fans’ contest. Since it would mean a lot less pressure on him, Sharman figured why not, and gave Thorn his blessing.

Of course the rest is history as one coin flip shaped the NBA over the next two decades. Thorn’s call was obviously wrong. But five years later the Bulls drafted Michael Jordan. It figures if the Bulls had won that coin flip, they would have drafted Magic Johnson and never would have drafted Jordan five years later.

But while Magic was expected to be the No. 1 overall pick, it wasn’t an absolute sure thing and this is where it’s difficult to separate legend from truth when watching “Winning Times.”

At the time of the 1979 NBA draft, West was the Lakers coach but was making the transition to become the team’s general manager while Sharman was transitioning to become the team’s president.

“Winning Times” portrays West as being adamant in preferring Sidney Moncrief over Johnson. And there’s one scene in “Winning Times” when a character comes up to West and tells him, “Sharman says you’re drafting Johnson.”

As far as I can tell while West leaned toward Moncrief, he wasn’t that adamant about it. Sharman and Dr. Jerry Buss, who just bought the Lakers, preferred Johnson.

And West’s thinking is understandable. The Lakers already had a point guard in Norm Nixon so it definitely made sense to take Moncrief — who was a better scorer than Johnson and more of a combo guard who arguably could have been considered a better fit with Nixon.

But Buss wanted Johnson because after all he was “Magic,” and Buss had just bought the Lakers and needed a player to put butts in the seats.

Sharman preferred Johnson more for basketball reasons as his skill set as a 6-9 “point forward” who could rebound was just too good to pass up. And Sharman even compared Magic to Jerry West as a player.

I’m looking forward to continuing to watch “Winning Times” to see how much Sharman is mentioned as the series continues — and to try to separate the legend from the truth.