Welcome to
We are joined remotely by one of the creators,
writers, and executive producers of
show runner Max Borenstein, and executive producer
and the director of this episode, the pilot,
Adam McKay.
And introducing one of our big stars
who plays Magic Johnson, Quincy Isaiah.
♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
Welcome, guys. Now, if you are a sports fan,
you already know that Jerry Buss
and Magic Johnson will redefine sports and entertainment.
But when we meet them,
they're starting out as underdogs with a vision.
In the beginning, Adam, Max,
how did you think about finding a Magic?
It was one of the hardest casting tasks
I've ever encountered.
And in looking for Magic, we realized like,
he has a smile like no one.
He has a charisma, a sparkle, a talent like no one.
I had a moment where I was like, "I don't know if we can do this."
And then we got a tape from Torrance, California...
-(CHUCKLES) -I remember, Francine,
our casting director just saying,
"Take a look at this guy."
It was like the hair on the back of my neck stood up
and we kinda looked at each other
and it was like, "That's the guy."
This guy walked in and nailed the audition.
Rick was part of this casting process too.
Because once we knew that Quincy could act,
and could kill it, the question was,
"Can he play basketball believably?"
And we had Rick kind of put you through the wringer.
-Do you remember that day? -Oh, a hundred percent.
You know I tried to make you throw up?
-I did not know that. -RICK FOX: You did not know that?
I'm pretty sure we got close though.
In the case of finding a Magic,
the level with which Magic represents
not only basketball but Laker nation,
there was a level of-- I think we all felt, like,
how bad do you want it?
Right? You not only showed me, in that day, personally,
just as a person, how bad you wanted...
-this opportunity. -Yeah, man.
I mean, going back to that, I didn't know that story
about how hard y'all were looking.
I just want to say, I'm glad it was that tough.
(LAUGHING)
Selfishly, you know?
Looking back at the '60s and '70s,
before we even get to the showtime era,
how different was basketball then than it is
-when we find our show? -Oh, my god.
I grew up in the '70s into the '80s,
and basketball was like the ninth sport.
It was like baseball, football--
-Golf. -Golf!
I mean Max is right.
Golf was bigger than NBA basketball.
CBS apparently was ready to drop the league.
Then Magic and Larry Bird came in
and it just jumped up, it was crazy.
You're finding an underdog theme here, right?
Where you have a Dr. Buss who was probably, historically,
known now for all his championship success,
but we find him, Max, fighting to make this work.
I mean what's so fun about the show
and finding it at this moment in time
is that the NBA and all of these characters become such icons,
but we're meeting them at this moment when none of that was inevitable.
Adam, you're in the pilot here and you're setting the foundation style-wise.
How did you go about that?
We have an amazing director of photography,
Todd Banhazl, and that guy is fearless.
We were like, "Let's do something different.
Let's reference the past while creating a modern formula.
Mixing the formats, going from old '70s video camera to 35 mil."
Audiences are so sophisticated nowadays.
We knew they could handle it.
Quincy, you're now stepping into Magic Johnson,
how did you prepare yourself to do that?
You know, after the workout that you put me through...
(LAUGHTER)
I started the book, you know,
and just dug into that, and then,
there's so many videos on YouTube of Magic.
Just watching him and seeing how he acts,
even today, just really trying to hone into
my version of who he's gonna be on screen.
Max, was Jerry West actually opposed to drafting Magic?
It's documented that Jerry West thought
that Sidney Moncrief might be a better fit for the Lakers.
Apparently he and Magic still have some beef about it.
(CHUCKLES) Okay.
Okay.
As we go forward here, and we think of
the theme of outsiders and underdogs,
will that carry through a majority of this season?
Yeah. I think that's kind of what drew us all to this story.
The idea that this legendary team
that's now so definitive and etched in the history of the NBA
started as a rag-tag bunch.
I mean, you already have Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the team.
Then you bring in this over-sized point guard
which the NBA had never seen.
You have this owner that was from the outside,
and it's a great blend of underdog champion
going through Jerry West, Dr. Buss.
They all have demons they have to battle
and that's exactly what drew us to the story.
So, yeah, you'll see this through the whole season.
I love the battles that go on,
from the perspective of more than just the players.
We're gonna be following along this series
where you have front office, you have family members,
you have players, you have the media.
You have everyone that experienced showtime as it blossomed.
We get to see it, through all of their eyes.
Before we go, we're gonna play a game called Beat the Clock.
Now I'm gonna give you guys 24 seconds.
I'm gonna ask you a question, and we're gonna all chime in at one time to see who can
come up with the most answers here.
-We'll tell you who won at the end, all right? -Cool.
Name as many basketball players who have been in movies
that you can name.
-Ray Allen. -Okay, Michael Jordan.
Norm Nixon was in
-Bernard King... in
Kevin Durant.
-Travis Ford... in
You got Ray Allen.
Oh, God, there's someone else in
-there's a lot of guys in-- -(IMITATES BUZZER)
FOX: You're absolutely right.
Guys, that means though, we have a tie between Max and Adam.
So let's go to a tiebreaker.
Since nobody named Rick Fox in a movie...
I was gonna say!
I'm gonna challenge you guys to name at least
one basketball movie that I was in.
-ADAM MCKAY: Well, uh... -Ooh.
Basketball movie that you were in, I know
a lot of stuff you've been in.
But basketball movie?
-Wait, wait,
-Ah, too late.
-Boom! -FOX: That's right.
Thank you, Max. Thank you, Quincy.
-Thank you, Adam. -Thank you.
Thank you guys for kicking off
Winning Time: The Forum.
Make sure you catch us again on the next episode.
♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪