'Winning Time' Meshes Fatherhood, Sex, Basketball And Comedy Like No One Else In 2nd Season Opener

Viewers of "Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty" must remember that executive producer Adam McKay previously made "Succession," "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" and "Eastbound & Down." He also wrote and directed Saturday Night Live when it was still good.

Few combined real drama with dark humor as McKay did in "Succession."

In "Winning Time," which opened its second season on HBO Max Sunday night, McKay and company max out again by meshing real family drama with raw, cartoonish humor, a little porn and basketball - all in an hour. Another delightfully entertaining hour by the way, much like most of the first season in the spring of 2022.

The show also borrows from what made "The Sopranos" on HBO from 1999-2007 one of the greatest television series of all time. It is not for the Family Hour, but it is a show about family - dysfunctional and otherwise.

Lakers Face Serious Fatherhood Issues In 2nd Season Premier

The show Sunday focused surprisingly on fatherhood. Lakers' owner Jerry Buss tries to make up for lost decades with his now-grown kids. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sets an example of a good, doting dad as his second wife is about to give birth. And the oversexed Magic Johnson tries to decide between paying his baby mama to care for the child secretly and keep quiet about it, or have the child more openly with both extended families involved.

But like "The Sopranos," "Winning Time" doesn't allow itself to get too bogged down with family matters and returns to the action well - the business of killing people in the former and the business of the NBA in the latter. The Lakers' practices scenes feature excellent, old school basketball.

The episode opens with a fast forward from the final episode of season one when the Lakers beat Philadelphia for the 1980 NBA title to the 1984 playoffs. The Lakers have just beat Boston, 115-109, in Game 1 of the first Lakers-Celtics NBA Finals since 1969 when Boston beat the Lakers for the seventh straight time since 1959. To the tune of Prince's "Let's Go Crazy," the Lakers dash joyously out of The Garden to the team bus.

"We don't want another ring," slicked up Lakers' coach Pat Riley, played by Adrien Brody, yells as the Lakers also won the title in 1982 over Philadelphia. "We want their f-in hearts!"

Magic Johnson Faces Reality After Lakers 1980 Title

Then it flashes back to the summer of 1980 with Olivia Newton-John's "We Are Magic" playing after the Lakers' first title since 1972 when they beat the New York Knicks. Magic Johnson became the first rookie to win the NBA Finals MVP in '80 as he got it over the injured Abdul-Jabbar, whom he replaced at center in the decisive Game 6.

But there is trouble as his business people try to make his baby disappear.

The Magic Johnson-Larry Bird rivalry will take center stage as HBO Max series "Winning Time" unfolds its second season with episode two next Sunday night. (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein via Getty Images).

"That's cold," Johnson, played by look-alike Quincy Isaiah, tells them of their plan. How Abdul-Jabbar handles his wife's pregnancy and shows off the baby perhaps inspires Johnson. He and his parents help him dismiss his financial people's plan. He meets the baby son, Andre Johnson, and the baby's mother, Melissa Mitchell, in the hospital with both sets of grandparents. In the future, Johnson would visit Andre Mitchell each summer, and the son eventually worked in Magic Johnson Enterprises as a marketing director.

Buss' stab at fatherhood doesn't go as well, nor does the Lakers' 1980-81 season under coach Paul Westhead's high school-like offense. Johnson injures his knee and misses 45 games as the Lakers bow out in the first round to Houston. But Johnson still manages to have sex with yet another woman during "rehab" while watching a Lakers game, but she does not like the cast and leaves him suddenly.

Winning Time Features A Talking Magic Cast?

After her exit, the cast actually talks to Johnson in a hilarious moment. Remember, McKay made "Talladega Nights," which also had a memorable scene in which Ricky Bobby too suffers from a leg injury. And the Celtic leprechaun did talk as a cartoon in season one.

"She's the least of your problems," the cast says through a lipstick kiss mark the girl left at the knee. "Funny, how crap changes on a dime, huh? Yeah, it's me, your ripped-up knee. We is f-d up. Face it, bruh."

The cast details several previous NBA stars who were never the same after a knee injury, then tells Johnson he better pick up an application soon for a real job.

Soon, though, Johnson will be back and in charge and Westhead is done.

"It ain't Show Time no more," Johnson says in a preview of the next episode when he asks to be traded early in the 1981-82 season. A day later, Buss fires Westhead as Johnson is signed to a $25 million contract for 25 years. And Mr. Cool Pat Riley becomes coach with a much better, fast break offense that fits Magic Johnson.

"There's nothing they can do to stop us as long as we keep our cool," Riley says.

Not so fast, say Larry Bird and the Celtics. It will be back to basketball next Sunday night.

"I really don't like that MF," Johnson says of Bird as the episode ends.