Tracy Letts on Playing Jack McKinney, the Coach Who Brought Fast-Break Offense to the Lakers, on HBO’s ‘Winning Time’
variety.comJ. Kim Murphy SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for “Who the F**k is Jack McKinney?,” the March 27 episode of “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” which is now streaming on HBO Max.Like every other episode of HBO’s “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” Sunday’s episode picks up with the Los Angeles Lakers organization pinned against a wall, this time scrummaging for a new head coach after the abrupt resignation of Jerry West (Jason Clarke).
With a Palm Springs pre-season training camp on the horizon, the Lakers land on a man who might have more ideas than they’ve bargained for, leading owner Jerry Buss (John C.
Reilly) to bellow over the phone, “Who the fuck is Jack McKinney?” Tracy Letts had the same question when he was asked to play the Lakers coach on the series.
Although the actor, playwright and Chicago theater mainstay is old enough to remember the Showtime Lakers’ dominance in the 1980s, he wasn’t aware of the man who innovated the team’s style of play before joining “Winning Time.”“I certainly was familiar with the Showtime Lakers and I remember the Larry Bird-Magic Johnson rivalry very well,” Letts tells Variety. “But Jack McKinney I did not remember at all, if I ever knew who he was.
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