re: Jerry West threatens legal action over portrayal in HBO series “Winning Time”

If this were a news piece, it could be argued that it was t defamation if there was an absence of malice.

Problem is that this is a series which purports to depict real events and real people. And I think some of these kinds of cases in the past have actually been won by the plaintiffs.


IIRC, The Hurricane resulted in a lawsuit because they depicted Hurricane Carter losing a match due to racism by the judges. He lost because he got the shite knocked out of him by the other boxer then lost on points.

The boxer or his family sued and they ended up having to make a settlement over it IIRC.

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Aren’t defamation lawsuits hard to win? Didn’t some media outlet outright lie about Sarah Palin and get away with it?

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West’s letter had statements from people that had worked with him for decades in LA stating they never had seen anything like what was portrayed their entire time knowing him

At least one of them is being portrayed as daddy’s girl on the show.

Magic’s a clown but the whole thing coming off like Jerry and Jeannie being the sane people around a bunch of drunken assholes and idiots in Kareem, Magic, Riley, West, etc, means that Jeannie Buss might as well have a producer and writer credit for the show.

The bitch is vindictive to say the least.

I think they are saving that for the follow-up series where Kobe is regularly raping white girls while Shaq’s workout regiment is going to Golden Corral. Because you know she will shite on both of them too.

jeanie buss was an 18 yr old freshman at USC during the 1979-80 season

to say she was a non-factor with the lakers at that time is an understatement

west has a point, his problem was he internalized everything to the point of making himself sick

if he was as prone to outbursts as the Winning Time character he probably would have been a LOT happier

I can see where he would be concerned that the character becomes reality for many in modern times and he is stuck with it as part of his legacy

He didn’t speak in 2022 street slang and buzz words. He was a mature kid who was mentoring other young NBA stars by the time he was 23 years old not some innocent idiot being spurned by the “white media” like he’s portrayed in the series. Magic himself has complained about it as well as West and other Lakers from the era.

So his portrayal isn’t part of the show he says is inaccurate?

I haven’t seen the show but if Kareem is portrayed as a slightly autistic, aloof guy who doesn’t talk much to teammates, has a very clean life with no partying, and leads the league in scoring and rebounding, they pretty much got him down.