After being asked last week for a retraction and apology by former Los Angeles Lakers executive Jerry West for a baseless and malicious assault on his character in the show Winning Time, HBO instead issued a statement defending it.
In a letter sent last week, West's lawyers alleged that Winning Time portrayed him as an out-of-control, intoxicated rage-aholic.
The Hollywood Reporter got a statement from the company initially, but it was later obtained by the sports network.
The network said that Winning Time is not a documentary and is fictionalized in part for dramatic purposes. The series and its depictions are based on extensive factual research and reliable sources, and the creators and cast have brought a dramatization of this epic chapter in basketball history to the screen.
The lawyers for West said that the series is a dramatization and that it does not insulate the network from liability.
The series, which has been airing on Sunday nights this spring, is based on the book "Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s."
West's lawyers alleged that the series creators acted with legal malice because many scenes in the series didn't show West's rage. The Lakers employees who worked with West during the time period covered in the show, as well as former players such as Michael Cooper, are included in the letter.
They turned him into a cartoon character to be laughed at instead of exploring his issues with compassion. Sure, those actions make dramatic moments, but they reek of facile exploitation of the man rather than exploration of character.
The show goes out of its way to insult Jerry West despite his accomplishments as an executive, according to West's lawyers.
Ramona Shelburne contributed to the report.
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