Jerry West Demands HBO Issue Retraction and Apology for ‘Winning Time’ Depiction

thewrap.com:

Add NBA legend Jerry West to the list of Los Angeles Lakers’ icons who are mad about HBO’s hit dramedy “Winning Time.” Through his attorneys, the star player-turned-baseball executive connected to some of the best team rosters in NBA history demanded a retraction and an apology for how he’s being portrayed on the show.

Based on the nonfiction book  “Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s” by Jeff Pearlman, “Winning Time” tells the story of the groundbreaking “Showtime” era of the Lakers.

The period dramatically changed Basketball with emphasis on fast-paced, entertaining play and an entertainment venue atmosphere at home games, and was dominated by the Lakers-Celtics rivalry.West, played by Jason Clarke on the show, is depicted as dedicated to the Lakers but tightly wound and frequently angry during the 1979-1980 basketball season covered in the show’s first season.

And the real West objects rather strongly to that.“The portrayal of NBA icon and LA 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.