Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty has officially been canceled by HBO after two seasons, and the move has been met with a plethora of responses from fans. Many aren’t too pleased with the sports dramedy being axed so soon, especially since there seemed to be plenty of stories left to tell. Because Season 2’s final episode had to serve as something of a de-facto series finale, an epilogue was added to provide a bit of closure. (Said scene was not included in early screeners sent to the press.) Now, one of the executive producers is opening up about how that ending tag came together.
The finale depicts the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss to the Boston Celtics at the 1984 NBA Finals, after which Magic Johnson stews in a shower alone. However, there’s subsequently a scene that takes place days later and shows team owner Jerry Buss and his daughter, Jeanie, having a discussion. The sports tycoon and his rising executive kid share optimistic thoughts about the franchise’s future in the NBA, before a montage chronicling their eventual successes is shown. Winning Time EP Kevin Messick explained that these scenes were crafted after HBO asked the creative to have a fail-safe in case Season 3 wasn’t greenlit. Messick further recalled the conversations surrounding that “creative problem”:
It was a creative problem that we needed to come up with a solution for: What would [an ending after two seasons] look like? Whether we liked it or not, it was a problem that we had to solve. And so we prepared before the strike, and delivered to HBO, two different versions of the ending so that HBO would have both options by the time the show started airing and ratings came in and reviews and all that.
I can definitely understand why finding an effective way to conclude the series would’ve been difficult, at this point. The producers essentially had to condense decades of notable events into a montage featuring text and photos. Of course, the epilogue with Jeanie and Jerry Buss also had to be satisfying as well. Kevin Messick went on to tell Vulture when that scene was produced and explain why he thinks it could’ve worked no matter how long the program stayed on the air:
We shot that in January. It was a new scene created to directly address the question that HBO gave us. Then there’s an epilogue that runs with shots from the show that is, I think, powerful and emotional. It charts the successes of everybody that you’ve met along the way. It could have run at the end of any season. But it works no matter how long we got to make the story because the success and the accomplishments of each of our characters are true no matter what year it airs.
Per the producer, John C. Reilly (who played Jerry Buss) and Hadley Robinson (who played Jeanie) were well aware of why that moment needed to be filmed. He explained that the creative team was “transparent and honest” with the actors about the scenario serving as a “safety valve” of sorts. It’s a sweet scene, as is the ensuing montage but, as a fan, I still couldn’t help but feel somewhat short-changed.
That’s because there’s a considerable amount of Lakers lore that could’ve been covered in future seasons. I personally had the chance to speak with Kevin Messick and fellow EP Salli Richardson earlier this year, and they explained that they would’ve been open to tackling Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal’s era. Aside from that, Winning Time was just downright entertaining, and the cast and crew deserve a lot of credit for that. Season 2, which had shades of Star Wars’ The Empire Strikes Back, was thrilling. The actors also put in serious work. For instance, Hadley Robinson, John C. Reilly and their co-star effectively played out that tense Monopoly scene in the second season’s premiere.
Despite all that though, I suppose fans should’ve seen the cancellation coming. That’s due to the fact that the author who wrote the book that inspired the show was begging viewers to tune in weeks ago so that ratings would get a boost. Like so many others, I do wish this wasn’t the end of the road for the basketball-centric production. But I’ll take some satisfaction in the fact that Kevin Messick and co. tried to close out the story the best they could, given the circumstances.
All episodes Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty can be streamed now using a Max subscription.