November 1991 Saddam Hussein is in the papers, and famed basketball player Ervin “Magic” Johnson (Quincy Isaiah’s film debut) bites his lips thoughtfully at a Los Angeles clinic when he learns he has HIV. The action flashes back to 1979, when businessman Jerry Bass (John C. Reilly, known for The Aviator, Gangs of New York) decides against his best judgment to buy the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team. And contrary to the opinion of coach Jerry West (Jason Clarke, known from the film The Great Gatsby), they also invite the young and still vegetating in the Michigan wilderness of Magic Johnson.
Based on a book by sports writer Jeff Pearlman, the series, which premiered on Amediateka on March 7, tells the story of the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s. The pilot episode was invited to shoot director Adam McKay (the series “Heirs”, the films “Power”, “Don’t Look Up”), whose frisky style, apparently, was to set the tone for all subsequent series.