It’s Showtime, not Winning Time, and all the haters who took issue with their portrayal in Adam McKay’s Lakers series are getting the last laugh in Legacy: The True Story Of The LA Lakers. The teaser for the new Hulu miniseries from Antoine Fuqua features many of Winning Time’s naysayers, including court legends Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
The 10-part series chronicles many eras of the Lakers dynasty, starting with Jerry Buss’ original ’79 success story and highlighting some of the team’s megastars through the years, like Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, and most recently, LeBron James. Some of it is admittedly familiar territory: not only is Johnson’s rise to fame charted in Winning Time, the former athlete told his own story in the Apple TV+ docuseries They Call Me Magic. Still, it would be impossible to tell the “true story of the Lakers” without him.
The series will cover the business side of the equation as well, specifically the “family feud” for control of Buss’ empire. “It was family, and it carried over onto the court,” says Abdul-Jabbar (who notably called the McKay production “deliberately dishonest” as well as “drearily dull”) in the trailer.
“Running the franchise as a ‘mom and pop’ operation, Dr. Buss gave his children front office jobs with the understanding they would, someday, inherit his kingdom,” reads the series’ official synopsis. “But sibling rivalry, interpersonal conflict, and corporate unrest threatened to destroy everything Dr. Buss worked so hard to build.” (For the record, Jeanie Buss, the Lakers’ CEO and controlling owner, is an executive producer on the project.)
Commenting on the Buss’ infighting in the trailer, Mark Cuban (a fellow NBA owner) observes, “It is the real life Succession”—which is, coincidentally, another Adam McKay-produced television show. Now, if Will Ferrell showed up in Legacy, then we’d really have a meta-drama for the ages.