All Ball: Lakers Mr. Clutch backs down HBO, Bruins back, USC backed out
By Paul Teetor
Jerry West Fights Back
It’s been a tough year for Jerry West — and it potentially got a lot tougher this week when he fought back against HBO and the low-rent cable clowns who made its new series “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.”
West is totally justified in objecting to how they portrayed him, but by going legal he has brought vastly increased attention to the very material he’s objecting to.
You can’t blame the 83-year-old Lakers legend — the Greatest Laker of them all — for fighting back. He’s been dishonestly smeared by a bunch of HBO hacks who treated his amazing career like a joke and his complex personality like a cartoon.
Like most great men in the twilight of their lives he cares deeply about his legacy and his depiction in the history books. Now both of those are in grave danger of being damaged and distorted by people who call themselves Lakers fans but in reality care only about attracting eyeballs to their cheap carnival show and collecting big bucks from the rubes who tune in expecting to see the real Lakers story behind the public story.
Not only was West a superstar player for 14 years, from 1960-1974 – aptly nicknamed Mr. Clutch and Gentleman Jerry — at a time when the Lakers were busy establishing themselves as the second most popular Los Angeles sports team, behind only the Dodgers. But he also became one of the most successful general managers in NBA history when he built the Showtime Lakers of the 1980s and then followed that up by building the Kobe-and-Shaq three-peat teams of 2000-2002.
As a player, he was an unstoppable 6-foot-4 scoring guard who was also an all-league defender. He is a top-15, at worst top-20 all-time great.
As a talent evaluator, he’s the best the NBA has ever seen. No one else – not Red Auerbach of the Celtics, not R.C. Buford of the San Antonio Spurs, not Jerry Krause of the Chicago Bulls – is even close.
He’s such a revered figure in NBA circles that the league office used a photo of him dribbling the ball as the prototype for its logo, which has become a world-wide symbol of the best basketball league on the planet.
Hence his third nickname: The Logo.
He made legendary Lakers owner Jerry Buss so happy that Buss, who died in 2013, left West a pair of season tickets to all Lakers home games for the rest of his charmed, tormented life.
But back in January the Lakers, now led by Buss’s daughter Jeannie Buss, decided it would be a smart move to revoke those tickets. They offered no public explanation, but their minions in the mainstream media offered a ridiculous rationale: Since West now works as a consultant to the Clippers, it didn’t make sense for him to have those Lakers tickets. They muttered something about spying for the enemy, as if both teams didn’t already have their own scouts that can tell them every possible thing there is to know about the other team – certainly more than West can learn by just watching the Lakers play in person.
West was classy enough not to object publicly, but his friends let the media know he was hurt and humiliated by the classless move – especially because he had let Jeannie Buss know he was open to coming back to the Lakers three years ago, after he helped build the Golden State Warriors into a dynasty that now looks to be on the verge of winning another NBA title.
When Jeannie decreed that they didn’t need West’s help – after all, she had her best friend, Linda Rambis, as her top basketball adviser, plus they had just signed LeBron James and we all know how well that has worked out – he went across the hallway at Staples Center and offered his services to Clippers owner Steve Ballmer.
Ballmer, a smart multi-billionaire who made a fortune as a top exec at Microsoft, quickly snapped him up, amazed that he was unwanted by their archrival Lakers. Right on schedule, and not so coincidentally, the Clippers made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals for the first time ever last season and probably would have done the same again this season if not for serious injuries to their two superstars, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Both of them, by the way, said their decisions to come here were heavily influenced by the presence of West, just as Kevin Durant had made it clear that West was instrumental in his decision to join the Warriors in 2016 after leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder as a free agent.
So West’s horrible, no good, very bad year started with the revoked season-tickets fiasco.
And percolating away in the background was the knowledge that an HBO production team led by Adam McKay – the alleged comic genius behind such heavy-handed Will Ferrell hits as Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights: the Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and Anchorman 2: the Legend Continues – was working on the first 10 episodes of “Winning Time,” based on Jeff Pearlman’s definitive book on the Lakers, “Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s.”
In an earlier lifetime, All Ball was the book critic for the LA Weekly, from 2011 to 2018. When the Pearlman book came out in 2014, here is how I summed it up in the Weekly: “An exhaustively researched crazy quilt of the all-too-human stories behind the overarching heroes-and-championships narrative. Human stories like Earvin “Magic” Johnson, the beloved icon who was also a manipulative coach killer. Like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the regal master of the skyhook who was also an arrogant jerk. And like Pat Riley, the easygoing regular guy who morphed into an egomaniacal tyrant.”
Eight years later, “Showtime ,” based on 300 interviews with almost everyone who was involved with the Showtime Lakers in one way or another — has become a classic of sports reporting. It is also one of the rare sports books to survive the Hollywood gauntlet of endless options and treatments and “attached stars” coming and going to actually get turned into a Hollywood production.
The problem is that all the nuances, all the multi-dimensional aspects of Pearlman’s portraits of these star personalities have been shaved off, and real human beings have been turned into cartoon stick figures -– none more so than West.
“Each character is reduced to a single bold trait as if the writers were afraid anything more complex would tax viewers’ comprehension. Jerry Buss is Egomaniac Entrepreneur, Jerry West is Crazed Coach, Magic Johnson is Sexual Simpleton. I’m Pompous Pussy,” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote last week. “They are caricatures, not characters.”
All Ball also had the privilege of reviewing West’s book: “West by West, My Charmed, Tormented Life,” when it came out in 2012. Here is how I summed up that book: “Reading ”West by West” is like overhearing a celebrity patient talking to his therapist: It’s unsettling and uncomfortable — yet you can’t stop listening.”
In the book West candidly admits that his father beat him unmercifully; that the death of his brother in the Korean War devastated him; and his family; that his lack of self-confidence drained most of the joy and pride out of his extraordinary accomplishments; that he has a quirky personality; and that he has taken antidepressants to deal with the pain and suffering he has endured.
But that candor and transparency about his personal demons doesn’t give McKay and his group of writers license to make up anecdotes, and details about him that never happened, like West throwing his 1972-73 NBA championship trophy through his office window or raging at his underlings. We know the bit about the trophy is made up because his office at the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood had no windows.
This week West had his lawyers send a letter to HBO demanding an apology and a retraction of their characterization of him – within the next two weeks. Left unsaid is what West will do if there is no retraction or apology forthcoming. However, it doesn’t take a legal eagle to project that the next step will be a defamation lawsuit.
“You have perpetrated an egregious wrong on a good and decent man and have harmed him in the process,” his lawyer Skip Miller wrote. “The series falsely and cruelly portrays Mr. West as an out-of-control, intoxicated rage-aholic. The Jerry West in ‘Winning Time’ bears no resemblance to the real man. The real Jerry West prides himself on treating people with dignity and respect. ‘Winning Time’ is a baseless and malicious assault on Jerry West’s character. You reduced the legacy of an 83-year-old legend and role model to that of a vulgar and unprofessional bully – the polar opposite of the real man.”
The letter even included excerpts from the column written this week by Abdul-Jabbar.
“Instead of exploring his issues with compassion as a way to better understand the man, they turn him into a Wile E. Coyote cartoon, to be laughed at. He never broke golf clubs and he didn’t throw his trophy through the window. Sure, those actions make dramatic moments, but they reek of facile exploitation of the man rather than exploration of character.”
All Ball would like to respectfully add his own testimonial: When I interviewed West by phone about his book, he gave some of the most candid and deeply introspective answers I’ve ever heard.
As the first several Winning Time episodes have aired this spring, West faced a dilemma familiar to anyone who has ever felt that a book, a newspaper or magazine article, or even a 140-word tweet had misrepresented them: fight back and put a spotlight on the offensive material or stay silent and hope it all blows over.
Last week, HBO announced that it had committed to a second 10-episode season. That apparently was the trigger for West’s letter. He could endure 10 episodes of this outrageous distortion, but not 20.
All Ball wishes West good luck with his PR battle, and understands why he did what he did. But we fear it will end badly for him, and a defamation suit could even end up in court with HBO trying to prove to a jury that West was “an intoxicated, out-of-control rage-aholic.”
Or HBO could do the smart thing, the right thing, the wise thing, admit they went too far, and apologize to the Logo.
The crazy part about this story is that this kind of controversy usually erupts over a portrayal of someone who’s been dead for 50 or 100 years.
Unfortunately for HBO, West is very much alive. (A dead person can’t sue for libel.)
HBO chose the wrong guy to try to cancel. As a result, Winning Time could end up being canceled itself.
You don’t mess with Mr. Clutch.
Blue skies for UCLA; not so much for USC
Spring is in full bloom. That’s when young college ballers make their plans for the future: should they stay or should they go?
UCLA hoop fans got a double dose of great news this week: their best player, Jaime Jaquez, and their starting point guard, Tyger Campbell, both announced they will come back next year and not enter the NBA draft in June.
That was particularly good news in the case of Jaquez, who someday will make an NBA team as a glue guy, a hustle guy, a team-first guy who just happens to have uncommon grit and enough shooting, passing and defending skills to play at the highest level.
Of all the players who played for UCLA and USC this year, he is the only one listed on any mock drafts, even though he’s seen as a mid-to-late second round guy.
Campbell, the clever ball handler and improving shooter who orchestrates the whole Bruins show, has improved every year and with another development year could easily be drafted next season. But he is not ready yet and was smart enough to recognize it.
Unfortunately, shooting guard Johnny Juzang – who led the Bruins in scoring this year at 16 points per game — was not smart enough to recognize that he is in the same category: talented enough for the NBA, but not physically ready. Although he was listed as a second-round guy on several mock drafts last year, he regressed this year and is not listed on any mock drafts.
He is making a terrible mistake in his basketball career and will probably end up overseas playing in some foreign league and dreaming about how to get to the NBA – just like hundreds of other talented players who left college too early.
The future for USC hoops doesn’t look nearly as bright as it does for the Bruins. The Trojans two best players, forward Isaiah Mobley and guard/forward Drew Peterson, both declared for the draft. Again, neither is listed on any mock drafts and both are extreme long shots to make the NBA next fall, regardless of whether they are drafted or not.
Peterson at least was smart enough to refrain from hiring an agent, which means he still has a month to test the waters, see what the pro scouts think about his prospects, and decide to play out his last year of eligibility. USC fans can be confident that ultimately he will come back to play one more year and further his development.
Mobley, however, is a different case. After being touted as an elite player from junior high school, along with his younger brother, Evan Mobley, he has hired an agent and does not have the option to return for his last year of eligibility.
His younger brother, 7-footer Evan Mobley, was the third overall pick in the NBA draft and just finished second in the voting for the Rookie of the Year. He is an elite talent and will be an All-Star at some point in the near future and soon will be making $30 million to $40 million a year.
Isaiah Mobley, while nearly as tall as his brother, is not nearly as talented. Whether driven by sibling rivalry, financial envy or whatever, he is destined, like Juzang, to end up in a European League dreaming of joining his brother in the NBA.
In this case, USC’s loss is also his loss.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. Follow: @paulteetor. ER