'Winning Time' review: HBO series is a slam dunk

“Winning Time: The Rise of Lakers Dynasty” is Big: Big noise, Big names, Big twists, Big moves and most importantly, Big Fun.

This 10-part miniseries tracks the outrageous story behind the rise of the Los Angeles Lakers, and you don’t need to care about basketball to get caught up in its whirlwind.  This is a show about personalities, about big money daredevilry, about celebrity and about the desperate, at times dark, need to win. 

The first big personality here is Dr. Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly, at the top of his game), a blustery, womanizing, hard-partying real estate mogul who in 1979 bought both the Los Angeles Lakers and the Forum, the arena where they played, with more than a bit of sleight of hand. At the time the NBA was low-rated and the Forum was losing money.

Buss then chose Michigan State’s Earvin "Magic" Johnson (electric newcomer Quincy Isaiah) as his top pick in the draft, teaming him with arguably the best who’d ever played the game, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Solomon Hughes). With Lakers legend Jerry West (Jason Clarke) as the coach, what could go wrong?

Pretty much everything, as it turned out. And as the season progressed it became clear that the only way Buss could avoid going bust was for the Lakers to win the championship.

“Winning Time” is an Adam McKay (“Don’t Look Up,” “The Big Short,” “Anchorman”) production and it’s a rowdy mix of quick cuts, famous names, salty scenes and frenetic energy. The casting is just delicious, with Sally Fields as spiky Mama Buss, Adrien Brody as player/coach Pat Riley, Jason Segel as an unsure assistant, Michael Chiklis (perfect) as legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach, and Hadley Robinson as Jeanie Buss, the naïve daughter who went to work for her dad and got caught up in it all.

This one’s got a lot of bounce in it. Again, Big fun.

Tom Long is a longtime contributor to The Detroit News. 

"Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty”

GRADE: A-

9 p.m. Sunday

HBO