Shaquille O'Neal Reveals He Would Welcome A Season Of "Winning Time" About Him And Kobe Bryant: "Let's Do It."

Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant were one of the greatest duos to ever play the game of basketball. They three-peated together, and there's no question that their partnership with the Los Angeles Lakers was a perfect pairing in terms of basketball.

The Los Angeles Lakers have been heavily mentioned in popular culture recently due to the show "Winning Time", which is currently available for streaming on the HBO Max platform. The show talks about the rise of the Showtime Lakers but is regarded as a dramatization of events. There have been many who have criticized the show, including Jerry West, who threatened to involve the Supreme Court over his portrayal in the show.

“The series made us all [the Lakers] look like cartoon characters,” West told Dwyre. “They belittled something good. If I have to, I will take this all the way to the Supreme Court.”

Shaquille O'Neal was recently interviewed by Rory Carroll of Reuters. One of the topics that came up was the show. O'Neal admitted that he doesn't like how Jerry West is portrayed in that show, but added that he'd welcome a second season that focused on him and Kobe Bryant.

O'Neal said he is a fan of the popular and controversial HBO show "Winning Time," a scripted series on the rise of the Showtime era Lakers in the 1980s.

"I like it but I don't like how they depict my good friend Jerry West. But other than that I think it's very interesting."

West, the Lakers former general manager, is depicted in early episodes as having a hot temper and the Hall of Famer has asked for an apology and even threatened legal action against the show's creators.

"Jerry was always kind and compassionate to me. I've never seen him have those meltdowns. So I think that portrayal of Mr West was probably false," said O'Neal.

Despite that, he said he would welcome a second season focused on the Shaq and Kobe Bryant-led Lakers, who won three straight championships starting in 2000.

"Let's do it," he said.

"I'm the type where you can say or do whatever you want, no problem. I understand the entertainment world," added O'Neal, who won an Academy Award last month as a producer on "The Queen of Basketball," a short subject documentary on the life of pioneering star Lusia Harris.

There is no doubt that it would be interesting to see a dramatization of the Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant era in Los Angeles. The two were also interesting people off the court, so it definitely would make for good TV.

It remains to be seen if HBO does end up creating a season of "Winning Time" based on Shaquille O'Neal's time in Los Angeles. However, based on the success of their current show about the Showtime Lakers, it would definitely be a good opportunity for them.

Comments

Klay Thompson to sit out Warriors preseason games in Japan as Kerr says he needs more time to ramp-up

Klay Thompson may have returned healthy to the Golden State Warriors last season, but the scars from his two missed seasons are still quite visible. The Warriors played their first of two preseason games against the Washington Wizards on Friday and will play another on Sunday, but Warriors coach Steve Kerr said that Thompson will not be playing at all during the trip to Japan. "Just feel more comfortable giving him a little more of a ramp up," Kerr said before Friday's victory over Washington. "He's just not quite ready to play at this point just based on where, you know, we're so early in camp. We just want to be safe and make sure he gets a good ramp-up before he plays in games." Typically, so little time to ramp up wouldn't be a problem for a veteran in a preseason context. The games tend to be so low-impact and demand so few minutes out of a team's best players that they can safely jog through them. Stephen Curry and Draymond Green played 1...

Shaquille O'Neal says Dennis Rodman was his worst teammate: 'He was a great player, but he made it hard'

Shaquille O'Neal played for six franchises over a 20-year NBA career. That's a lot of teammates. Speaking on The Big Podcast with Shaq, the four-time champion and Hall of Famer revealed which one of those teammates was the worst. "Worst teammate? Dennis Rodman," O'Neal said. "He was a great player, but he made it hard. Like when you try to corral the guys together and the people above you [are] letting this one guy do whatever he wants. So we had to be there an hour before the game. He'd come in fifteen minutes before the game eating chicken and rice. While the coaches are talking, he would jump in the shower. Cold shower. Come and give you 15-20 rebounds." O'Neal played with some characters in his time. We know about his beef with Kobe Bryant, who we know wasn't always the easiest teammate to get along with, though Shaq has long expressed regret over the way he and Bryant handled their relationship as young superstars, and eventually, he ...

LeBron James says he has 'no relationship' with Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

It's not a matter of if LeBron James passes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the No. 1 spot on the NBA's all-time scoring list, it's when. James sits just 1,326 points away from passing the Hall of Famer and Los Angeles Lakers legend, a milestone that should happen at some point this season given James is still performing at peak levels and is coming off a year in which he averaged over 30 points a night. If he averages around the same amount of points as he did a season ago for the Lakers, James could break the record somewhere in the middle of the season, assuming he stays healthy. It's a highly anticipated moment heading into the season, but in regards to LeBron's thoughts about and his relationship with Abdul-Jabbar, he didn't have much to say on the matter. Following the Lakers first preseason game Monday night, a reporter asked James what his thoughts were on the Lakers legend and if the two had any relationship, to which LeBron gave a very short answer. "No...

Crossover World

Search This Blog