It’s Magic vs. Larry in “Winning Time” Season 2 Teaser
“My friends, the future of sports is purple and gold.”
This is how Lakers owner Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) greets us in the opening seconds of Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty‘s season 2 teaser, but there’s another team from the other side of the country that would suggest the future of sports is green and white.
The first season explored Magic Johnson’s (Quincy Isaiah) arrival in Los Angeles as Buss, the newly minted Lakers owner, sought to change both the Lakers team and the entire NBA with the help of Magic’s singular talent and Kareem Abdul Jabar’s (Solomon Hughes) dominance inside. The gambit worked, as the Lakers ushered in a new style of play, coined the Showtime Era, that took the league by storm. Season one culminated with the Lakers winning the 1980 NBA Finals (Magic had one of the all-time greatest finals performances ever, with 42 points and 15 rebounds), and season 2 will continue the story from there, focusing on 1980 through 1984. The primary thrust of season 2 will delve into one of the greatest personal rivalries in sports history, Magic Johnson vs. Larry Bird, as the Lakers and the Boston Celtics battled for NBA supremacy. The teams, their respective players’ personalities and styles of play, and the cities they represented couldn’t have been more different.
That rivalry between Magic and Larry was glimpsed in season one—it began when the superstars were in college—but it’s bigger than just two men. The teaser reveals how Pat Riley (Adrien Brody), the unlikely rising star coach of the Lakers, felt that the only way a Lakers title could actually matter is if they beat their hated rivals in Boston. Season 1 also explored what a phenomenally awful place Boston was for opposing players—especially Black players—so much so that even Celtics legend Bill Russell was mistreated by the unruly, in his case, downright criminal fanbase [they broke into his home while he and his family were away on a vacation and vandalized it, even smashing his trophies]. The animus between the two teams and between Magic and Larry was real, and what was teased in the first season will be a major plot in season two.
Winning Time season 2 will see Reilly, Isaiah, Hughes, and Brody joined by returning stars Jason Clarke, Gaby Hoffmann, Jason Segel, Hadley Robinson, DeVaughn Nixon, Tamera Tomakili, Brett Cullen, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Spencer Garrett, Molly Gordon, Joey Brooks, Delante Desouza, Jimel Atkins, Austin Aaron, McCabe Slye, Thomas Mann, Gillian Jacobs, with Michael Chiklis and Rob Morgan.
Winning Time season 2 takes the court on Max on August 6. Check out the teaser below:
Here’s season 2’s logline:
Season two continues to explore the professional and personal lives of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers. This season hones in on the period just after the Finals in 1980 through 1984, culminating in the first professional rematch of the era’s greatest stars: Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
For more on Winning Time, check out these stories:
“Winning Time” Costume Designer Emma Potter on Making Magic With the Lakers
“Winning Time” Writer Rodney Barnes on Scripting HBO’s Fast-Breaking Lakers Series
“Winning Time” Co-Creator Jim Hecht on His Love Letter to the Lakers
Featured image: Teaser Art. WINNING TIME: THE RISE OF THE LAKERS DYNASTY. Courtesy Max.
