I Think SCOTUS Has Bigger Worries Than Jerry West's 'Winning Time' Portrayal
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In early March, when we profiled Jason Clarke—who plays the Hall-of-Famer Jerry West in Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty—he said, "all indications are [West] is not going to want to watch this or he's not going to be interested in it."
A little over a month later, we have few updates on that front. Jerry West is officially and without a single doubt interested in Winning Time. He told the Los Angeles Times in an interview this Monday, “The series made us all look like cartoon characters. They belittled something good. If I have to, I will take this all the way to the Supreme Court.” All due respect to you, Mr. West, but I think the Supreme Court has slightly bigger worries than your portrayal in an intentionally off-the-rails HBO show.
This follows the West-related drama from last week, when ESPN's Ramona Shelburne reported that West's lawyers sent a letter to HBO and series producer Adam McKay asking for a retraction within two weeks of the letter's receipt. West's legal team alleged that "Winning Time falsely and cruelly portrays Mr. West as an out-of-control, intoxicated rage-aholic," and that his characterization in the series "bears no resemblance to the real man."
"The portrayal of NBA icon and L.A. Lakers legend Jerry West in Winning Time is fiction pretending to be fact—a deliberately false characterization that has caused great distress to Jerry and his family," said Skip Miller, a partner at the Miller Barondess LLP law firm and attorney for West, to Shelburne. "Contrary to the baseless portrayal in the HBO series, Jerry had nothing but love for and harmony with the Lakers organization, and in particular owner Dr. Jerry Buss, during an era in which he assembled one of the greatest teams in NBA history."
A week after the letter from West's lawyers, HBO issued a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, seemingly aimed at any and all critics of Winning Time's portrayal of the Lakers organization. “HBO has a long history of producing compelling content drawn from actual facts and events that are fictionalized in part for dramatic purposes," the statement reads. "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.”
Anyone else have the sneaking suspicion that this battle is only beginning? Because even though Winning Time labels itself as a dramatization of the real-life story of the Showtime-era Lakers, West's lawyers claim that HBO is not protected from liability. "Jerry West was an integral part of the Lakers and NBA's success," Miller added in his statement. "It is a travesty that HBO has knowingly demeaned him for shock value and the pursuit of ratings. As an act of common decency, HBO and the producers owe Jerry a public apology and at the very least should retract their baseless and defamatory portrayal of him."
Like fellow Lakers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, West certainly has reason to take issue with his Winning Time doppelg?nger. Among many less-than-flattering Jerry West moments, Winning Time depicts West having sex after his only Finals win, boozing more often than not, and bickering with his wife. When we spoke with Clarke, he said that he had portions of West's memoir, West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life, which details his upbringing and depression in his adult life, underlined. So Clarke was hardly oblivious to the real-life story behind it all. But will the real-life Winning Time players eventually learn to let fiction be fiction? We're not optimistic.
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