Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has called out the HBO biographical series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty as being ‘deliberately dishonest’ and ‘drearily dull’ in a blog.
The 75-year-old NBA legend wrote the lengthy blog post calling out the way the show portrays his former coach, Jerry West, but did say his complete dislike of the series is nothing to do with its ‘historical inaccuracies’ or how he’s portrayed.
Who is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar?
Abdul-Jabbar was a high-flying basketball play who won five NBA Championships with the 1980s Showtime-era for Los Angeles Lakers. In his career he played 20 seasons of basketball before retiring at the age of 42, in 1989, before going on to be a coach.
During his career as a centre, Abdul-Jabbar was a record six-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), a record 19-time NBA All-Star, a 15-time All-NBA Team member, and an 11-time NBA All-Defensive Team member. He was a member of six NBA championship teams as a player and two more as an assistant coach, and was twice voted NBA Finals MVP.
the 7ft 2 living-legend widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and during his career for the Lakers he played alongside other legends such as Magic Johnson – on whom the HBO series is also centred around.
What is Winning Time?
Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty is based Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s by Jeff Pearlman and chronicles the 1980s ‘Showtime era’ of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, featuring notable NBA stars Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the team’s owner Dr Jerry Buss – played by John C Reilly.
The 10-episode series features Solomon Hughes as Abdul-Jabbar, who is actually an ex-basketball player, and Quincy Isaiah as Magic Johnson.
Why Abdul-Jabbar doesn’t like the show
‘Bland Characterisation’
The former basketball star actually lists several reasons he doesn’t like the show, in his blog post he titled “Winning Time” Isn’t Just Deliberately Dishonest, It’s Drearily Dull, but his first is the ‘bland characterisation’ as he compared the way they portrayed all the characters the same way ‘Lego Han Solo resembles Harrison Ford’.
He said: ‘Each character is reduced to a single bold trait, as if the writers were afraid anything more complex would tax the viewers’ comprehension.’
‘Exploitation’
Adbul-Jabbar then moves on to the portrayal of his former coach Jerry West calling it a ‘shame’ and saying they ‘exploited’ his character rather than explored it.
‘It’s a shame the way they treat Jerry West, who has openly discussed his struggle with mental health, especially depression,’ he wrote. ‘Instead of exploring his issues with compassion as a way to better understand the man, they turn him into a Wile E. Coyote cartoon to be laughed at. He never broke golf clubs, he didn’t throw his trophy through the window. Sure, those actions make dramatic moments, but they reek of facile exploitation of the man rather than exploration of character.’
Damage to his charity
Lastly, he wrote of the way his character’s portrayal could effect his charity the Skyhook Foundation due to a scene in the show where Hughes’ Kareem is working on the classic comedy Airplane! and Hughes’ Kareem tells a child actor to “f*ck off” when the boy asks for his autograph after their scene.
In response to this Adbul-Jabbar wrote: ‘I never said ‘fuck off’ to the child actor (Ross Harris) in Airplane!, nor have I ever said that to any child. I realize this was a shorthand way of showing my perceived aloofness during that time, even though I have often spoken about my intense, almost debilitating shyness. The filmmakers had access to that information, but truth and insight were not on their agenda. Shocking moments were.
‘There is a victim here, it’s just that it’s not me. My charity, the Skyhook Foundation, provides week-long retreats for inner-city school children to study science while staying in the national forest. For years, I have been visiting schools to promote STEM education,’ he added.
‘But when people see this show and come away with an impression that I’m verbally abusive to children, they are less likely to support my foundation. That means fewer kids will be able to partake in the program. So Adam McKay is giving those kids a great big ‘fuck off!’ that lasts a lot longer than the easy laugh he got out of a dishonest joke.’