Thanks for posting the real pics/footage. What a crazy situation, and it's even more insane looking back knowing how wildly successful they were despite stumbling into it.

Brody is killing the Riley role. His outburst to the team, Magic and the team responding, and the Grease needle drop were so well played.

Love this show. What a great episode. Brody is killing it playing Pat Riley. I grew up an NBA fan in the 90s so I wasn't fully aware on the Lakers run during the 80s. It's crazy how it went down with Pat Riley and how he started the Dynasty.

Grease theme song was brilliant with Riley slicking back the hair.

During the scene tonight at Kareem's house in his kitchen, his agent looked so familiar. I quickly figured out who reminded me of, but I thought no way that's him. This dude is way too old, and frankly, way too fat.

Still, I looked up the actor just in case, and no Winning Time in his IMDb credits. Ok, good, because that would have been insane if the guy in this scene was actually him.

But the more I watched the scene, the more I couldn't shake it, so I went to Twitter, searched the actor's name, and sure enough, to my horror...

Kareem's agent was played by none other than Jay freaking Mohr.

27 years after Mohr's infamous turn as agent/snake Bob Sugar in Jerry Maguire.

And yet, as crazy as that was, it had nothing on what I learned next. Because, a week ago...

JAY MOHR MARRIED JEANNIE BUSS

Lakers Owner Jeanie Buss Marries Comedian Jay Mohr in Malibu https://t.co/hnkJeh1zZ5

— TMZ (@TMZ) September 4, 2023

There is NO WAY, Jeanie Buss is NOT involved in MAX/HBO's #WinningTime.

She's the only person who does not come off in a negative light.

And with Jay Mohr making his debut in the series, well, I'm convinced. pic.twitter.com/8Xtq0y3Eht

— Sports Plus (@PrepSportsPlus) September 11, 2023

Oh, and one other weird meta nugget this episode...

- DeVaughn Nixon of course plays his own father, Norm Nixon.

- DeVaughn Nixon was born in July 1983, to Norm Nixon and Lena Pleasant.

- Around the same time, or soon after, Norm Nixon started dating Debbie Allen. (They would marry a year later, and have now been together for 39 years.)

- Norm Nixon was traded to the Clippers in October 1983.

In other words, in tonight's episode, during the scene at the night club, DeVaughn Nixon was portraying his own father, rubbing up on his own stepmother, three months after his own birth, in the wake of his father (presumably) leaving his mother to be with his soon-to-be stepmother.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Holy crap. Norm Nixon is Dyson's kid from T2.

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I wish he would have told Kareem "Hey, I haven't seen you since we were with that stripper in Laguna Beach. You remember her name? Because I do, it was April. That's my job, to remember the names of skanks you bang on the road."

Actually he needs to say it James Worthy, that would be epic.

Started the episode with a big grin on my face when they broke out the classic spinning-silver HBO logo & theme.

An hour later, that smile flipped the moment they started that weak montage and post-script covering the next 40 years in 60 seconds. A series called "Winning Time" would end with the Lakers suffering perhaps their most devastating defeat.

No epic 1985 rematch.
No 1986 Rockets upset at the hands of a young Hakeem.
No 1987 redemption.
No Magic & Larry spending time at the Bird farm shooting a Converse commercial, discovering (much to Larry's horror) that they were actually kindred spirits who liked one another.
No emergence of Jordan, who would take the torch from Larry & Magic and elevate the league to even bigger heights.
Lastly, no Magic facing the shock of his diagnosis, everything that came with it, and the ultimate victory of 30+ years of unprecedented success post his playing days.

So disappointing. Whether it was the strike, low viewership, or just bad timing, all that really matters is that we have been robbed of what was a really compelling piece of entertainment, and I believe it's a sad thing.

Txmoe said:

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TCTTS said:

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HBO's "Winning Time" has been canceled after 2 seasons https://t.co/inkQIfRzKE

— TheWrap (@TheWrap) September 18, 2023

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Hey TCTTS, I'll admit to not following the strike very closely and I sincerely do not want to turn this into some political thing. But is this 'blaming the strike' excuse real? And if it is, how much good content might we lose because of it?

(Just feels a little convenient for them to blame the strike.)

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More than anything, like they said, it was a viewership issue. And while the strike certainly contributed to that, there's no way it was the main culprit. Sure, cast appearances on talk shows, after shows, social media, podcasts, etc would have certainly helped. But seeing as there are no huge stars on the show, and the biggest ones aren't active on social media, the podcast circuit, etc, I don't think it would have mattered all that much.

Rather, for the life of me, I can't understand why they premiered the second season of a basketball show in late summer, with half its episodes airing directly opposite Sunday Night Football. This should have been a spring series, no question, with way more fanfare in the lead up than we got. Instead, it just kind of felt like an afterthought, dumped during the exact wrong time of the year.