Not so ‘Winning Time’
I SAW a few episodes of the HBO series “Winning Time: Rise of the Laker Dynasty” and because I was a Lakers fan back in the day, the reviews, whether good or bad, doesn’t matter to me.
There are two Lakers legends who won’t be following the series anytime soon—magic Johnson, who, according to cinemablend.com said, “I’m not looking forward to it. I›m going to leave it at that.” and the National Basketball Association (NBA) logo and the man known as “Mr. Clutch” when he played in tinseltown, Jerry West.
West is threatening to sue HBO and the producers of the series over what he thought the portrayal of him was, according to his lawyer, “as an out-of-control, intoxicated rage-aholic.”
Speaking of lawyers, we spoke to Atty. Mickey Ingles, of the Ingles, Laurel and Calderon firm, who specializes in sports law and I asked for his thoughts on West’s case.
“The challenge for Jerry West is the NY Times Standard when it comes to defamation. Usually, if public figures like Jerry West or popular athletes sue for defamation, they have to prove that the alleged defamer had actual malice or recklessly disregarded the truth when they produced the show or made the statements in question. So, Jerry West will have to show and prove that in court, which can be difficult.”
According to the Los Angeles Times web site, latimes. com, “The series made us all look like cartoon characters,” West told former Times sports editor Bill Dwyre. “They belittled something good. If I have to, I will take this all the way to the Supreme Court.”
The letter from attorney Skip Miller—addressed to HBO, Warner Bros. Discovery and executive producer Adam Mckay—demands a retraction and an apology. It also mentions unspecified damages “for the harm you caused to [West’s] well-earned and stellar reputation.”
“You are liable for your false and mean-spirited misrepresentation,” Miller claimed. “You have committed the tort of false light invasion of privacy by creating a false impression about Mr. West that is highly offensive and injurious to his reputation.”
HBO replied a week later that it “has a long history of producing compelling content drawn from actual facts and events that are fictionalized in part for dramatic purposes. “Winning Time” is not a documentary and has not been presented as such. However, the series and its depictions are based on extensive factual research and reliable sourcing, and HBO stands resolutely behind our talented creators and cast who have brought a dramatization of this epic chapter in basketball history to the screen.”
If West pushes through with his threat, he’ll be waging a war on two fronts, the court of law and the court of public opinion, no pun intended.
What won’t help HBO and the producers’ case are former players like Michael Cooper and Jamaal Wilkes denouncing the series and the NBA’S all-time leading scorer and Lakers icon Kareem Abdul-jabbar calling the show, “deliberately dishonest.”
Maybe HBO and the series’ producers shouldn’t have just relied on a book to create a series on one of the winningest franchises in sports history because there are people’s names and reputations at stake.