Early in the first episode of HBO’s “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” soon-to-be team owner Jerry Buss, played in all his tacky-huckster glory by John C. Reilly, is reclining on a water bed at the Playboy mansion. A female companion is curled up asleep in the crook of his arm and he stares at the TV in front of him, transfixed, as he watches basketball: “Goddamn basketball,” he says, almost breathless. “I mean, look at it, it’s like great sex. It’s always moving. It’s rhythmic. It’s up close and personal with no pads or helmets for protection. It’s just you and these other guys out there, trying to get the ball into the hoop. It’s a beautiful thing. And every single one of those guys plays that game with their own unique pizazz and style. It’s sexy! Come on! I mean, if there’s two things in this world that make me believe in God, it’s sex and basketball, ya know?” He turns to the woman next to him. “Hon?”
She groggily rolls over, breasts exposed, and, blamo, we’re pulled back to a time (1979 to be precise) when gratuitous female nudity was a Hollywood staple. The show makes an unconvincing visual argument for its return; there are naked breasts aplenty throughout this limited series, which rarely knows what to do with its handful of underwritten female characters who get to remain clothed, including Buss’ mother and partner in obfuscating the team’s finances, Jessie Buss (played by Sally Field) and his daughter and current Lakers owner and president, Jeanie Buss (played by Hadley Robinson).
No, where “Winning Time” succeeds — and it does succeed — is in its buoyant enthusiasm for an origin story.
