There are many facets to Jerry West. He's a two-time NBA Champion, he's one of the NBA's greatest 75 players of all time and as a former executive, he orchestrated the "Showtime" era with his penchant for acquiring talented players. Needless to say, when the man for whom the NBA logo was designed sets his sights on a goal, it is typically accomplished.
That's an impression that may not bode well for the producers of HBO's hit series, Winning Time. The satirical comedy has been heralded by several television and film critics but when it comes to the real-life subjects of the show, many of them have made it eminently clear that they are very unhappy with the way in which their former lives are being portrayed on screen. This has made for some interesting off-screen drama because while former Lakers such as Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar publically voiced their disdain for the show, Winning Time has helped launched the career of DeVaughn Nixon, who is the son of a former Laker great named Norm Nixon.
Be that as it may, Jerry West has become fed up with how he's portrayed on the show, so much so that he's ready to lawyer up in order to defend his honor and that of his former co-workers with the Los Angeles Lakers.
“The series made us all look like cartoon characters,” West said, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “They belittled something good. If I have to, I will take this all the way to the Supreme Court.”
West's attorney, Skip Miller, also shared his feelings on the troubling matter at hand.
"The portrayal of NBA icon and LA Lakers legend Jerry West in Winning Time is fiction pretending to be fact — a deliberately false characterization that has caused great distress to Jerry and his family," wrote Miller in a statement. "As an act of common decency, HBO and the producers owe Jerry a public apology and at the very least should retract their baseless and defamatory portrayal of him."
The stern message was heard loud and clear by the executives at HBO. To that, they issued a swift statement of their own, reiterating the fact that they fully intended to move forward with their hit series and they were not going to be pressured into doing otherwise.
"Winning Time is not a documentary and has not been presented as such," the HBO statement read. "However, the series and its depictions are based on extensive factual research and reliable sourcing, and HBO stands resolutely behind our talented creators and cast who have brought a dramatization of this epic chapter in basketball history to the screen.”
Looks like Jerry West may have a legal battle on his hands sometime soon. For more on this developing story, keep it locked.
Source: MSN
