Trivia / Winning Time

• Approval of God:
  • While most of real life people associated with the Showtime Lakers have disowned the series, Jeanie Buss is a fan of the show and its portrayal of her relationship with her father. She also praised both Hadley Robinson's and John C. Reilly's performances.
  • Jack McKinney's family also approved of the man's onscreen depiction. His wife and daughter even personally thanked the creators for highlighting his often overlooked role in developing the team's fast-paced offensive strategy that led to their success.
• Creator Killer: The series killed the partnership between Will Ferrell and Adam McKay and caused the dissolution of their production company Gary Sanchez Productions after years of growing tensions between the two. Ferrell wanted to play Jerry Buss, but McKay decided to cast John C. Reilly instead and did so without informing Ferrell first. Ferrell learned about Reilly's casting from Reilly himself and was so angered at McKay that he decided to finally end their partnership.
• Creator's Oddball: For Adam McKay, who started his career doing straightforward comedies with Will Ferrell, then moved on to dark comedies rife with social commentary, most notably The Big Short. This series would fall into the latter, though the social commentary takes a backseat to a more conventional docudrama.
• Dawson Casting: Several examples, but few as egregious as 52-year-old Wood Harris, who was 30 when he played star high school defensive lineman Julius Campbell in Remember the Titans, playing Spencer Haywood in his early 30s.
• Disowned Adaptation: Many of the real life figures associated with the Lakers during the Showtime era expressed their displeasure with the series:
  • Magic Johnson was not thrilled with the series being produced, particularly since McKay didn't bring in him or any of the other real life figures depicted in the show to give their input.
  • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar expressed similar concerns, saying “the story of the Showtime Lakers is best told by those who actually lived through it.” After he finally watched the series midway through the first season, he blasted the series in an essay for his newsletter, for turning everyone into "crude stick-figure representations" of themselves, particularly in the case of Jerry West. As for himself, he criticized the scene where he's shown cursing at child actor Ross Harris on the set of Airplane!, noting the incident never happened and the scene might negatively impact support for his children's charity. Abdul-Jabbar was also disappointed by the series as a fan of Adam McKay's previous work, finding it to be boring, lacking in substance and humor, and finding its use of Breaking the Fourth Wall to not be as insightful as it was in The Big Short.
  • Jerry West was so angered by the show portraying him as a bully with a Hair-Trigger Temper that he threatened legal action. Which ironically makes him seem more like his portrayal on the show.
  • Lakers head coach Paul Westhead took exception to being portrayed as an Extreme Doormat who needed Pat Riley to handhold him through the 1980 championship season, and for being generally unable to win games when in fact, the longest losing streak Westhead had upon taking over during that season was two games (twice).
  • Norm Nixon has been critical of the show's portrayal of his relationship with Johnson, saying that while they were competitive at practice, they were cordial otherwise and never got into a physical altercation.
• Fake American: Australian Jason Clarke as Jerry West, perfectly nailing West's high-pitched (at least when he's screaming) Southern twang and apparent penchant for colorful language.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Many of the personnel involved with the project are Lakers fans who frequently attend their home games.
  • On the flip side, Michael Chiklis is a big Celtics fan and was thrilled to have the opportunity to portray Red Auerbach.
• Real-Life Relative: Crossing with Generation Xerox - Norm Nixon is played by his son DeVaughn. Meanwhile sportscaster Dick Enberg is played by his son Ted.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Michael Shannon was originally cast as Jerry Buss, but felt uncomfortable with the show's Breaking the Fourth Wall nature and left. John C. Reilly got the role instead.
  • Bo Burnham was originally cast as Larry Bird, but had to leave due to a scheduling conflict. He's played by Seann Patrick Small in the final series.
• Working Title: During production, and before the actual title was revealed, it was informally known as Showtime. This was presumably never going to be the final title, as Showtime is the name of HBO's rival network.