HBO has just unveiled the first trailer for their original series chronicling an era-defining basketball team, Winning Time: The Rise of The Lakers Dynasty, premiering next month.
The show is executive produced by Don’t Look Up director Adam McKay and is based on the book by Jeff Pearlman, Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s, Deadline reports.
The show will star John C. Reilly as Jerry Buss, the Lakers owner who brought the team from the brink of bankruptcy to greatness in the decade of big hair. The story of the series will center on the rise of basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, played by Quincy Isaiah, and the lengths Buss will go to complete his dream of securing a sports dynasty.
The 10-part series also stars Solomon Hughes as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jason Clarke as Jerry West, Adrien Brody as Pat Riley, Gaby Hoffman as Claire Rothman, Sally Field as Jessie Buss, and many others.
Not only is McKay’s company, Hyperobject Industries, producing the project, but he is also directing the pilot episode. The show was co-created by Max Borenstein and Jim Hecht.
It sounds like there may have been enough drama behind the scenes of the show to make its own series since McKay’s decision to re-cast Will Ferrell in the role of Jerry Buss — and replace him with John C. Reilly — apparently caused the longtime creative collaborators to have a falling out, both in business and friendship.
Winning Time: The Rise of The Lakers Dynasty airs on HBO March 6 at 9 pm, with each subsequent episode airing once per week thereafter. It will also be available to stream on HBO Max.