Kareem-Abdul Jabbar isn’t holding back his feelings on the HBO series “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” … saying the whole production violates a cardinal sin — it’s boring!!
The Lakers legend went to town on the show — which has garnered strong reactions (both good and bad) over its characters’ portrayal of the Lakers players from the 80s — in a lengthy blog post, accusing the series of being “drearily dull.”
“There is only one immutable sin in writing: Don’t Be Boring! ‘Winning Time’ commits that sin over and over,” Kareem wrote.
KAJ prefaced his comments by saying his opinion has nothing to do with his portrayal on the show … and that although the show attempts to retell actual stories, he’s not “a stickler” for everything being factual.
Kareem, however, went on to lament how some of the characters being portrayed in the production — including Jerry Buss, Jerry West, Magic Johnson and Cap himself — are depicted, saying they are presented as caricatures of themselves instead of as real people.
“Jerry Buss is Egomaniac Entrepreneur, Jerry West is Crazed Coach, Magic Johnson is Sexual Simpleton, I’m Pompous Prick,” KAJ wrote.
“Amusement park portraits that emphasize one physical feature to amplify your appearance—but never touching the essence,” he added.
Kareem says his issue with WT was never enough to amount to outrage, but he admits it never held his interest. Instead, Kareem says the filmmakers “replaced solid facts with flimsy cardboard fictions that don’t go deeper and offer no revealing insights.”
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Of course, Abdul-Jabbar isn’t the only Laker great to take issue with the show. Magic told us a few weeks back he was “not looking forward to [the show]” when we saw him out in Los Angeles.
Actor Quincy Isaiah — the man playing Magic — recently defended the project, saying his intention wasn’t to disrespect any of the Lakers icons, and he hopes guys like Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar recognize it’s just storytelling.
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But, after reading Kareem’s post, it doesn’t sound like he’ll be tuning in much longer … if at all.
“Yeah, there’s an amazing, compelling, culturally insightful story in there. ‘Winning Time’ just ain’t that story.”