Jerry West blasts HBO’s ‘Winning Time,’ threatens to take his case to Supreme Court

By Jonathan Sherman
Updated: April 26, 2022

Los Angeles Lakers legend Jerry West is not done with HBO’s “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” just yet.

The show, which tells a dramatized and sometimes fictionalized story of the Lakers’ Showtime era, has come under fire by many for stretching some story elements too far.

Many believe that the show has treated West particularly poorly, and the current basketball executive is clearly set on putting up a fight.

West recently spoke with former Los Angeles Times sports editor Bill Dwyre about the HBO show and made it clear that he is dead set on clearing his name.

“The series made us all [the Lakers] look like cartoon characters,” West told Dwyre. “They belittled something good. If I have to, I will take this all the way to the Supreme Court.”

This isn’t the only mention of potential legal action that West may consider taking, either. His attorney Louis R. Miller penned a letter to HBO making it clear that he believes the television network has broken the law in the way it decided to portray West.

“You replaced the real Jerry West — a consummate professional — with his polar opposite, then portrayed this lie to the public as genuine,” the letter read. “You thereby violated the law.”

Though the show was predicted to be a big winner for HBO, it is now clearly becoming much more of a headache.

With West clearly not interested in letting go of the matter, it will be fascinating to see how the show moves forward. It is quite possible that HBO simply decides to cut its losses and cancel the show to make sure that it does not have to deal with anymore bad press or potential legal action.