![]() So I don’t know what this stuff is, I haven’t watched it, I’m not gonna watch it. How are you gonna do it? You can’t do it. The way we played the game, the way we worked together as a unit… It was a show from the owner all the way down. It has to be authentic and real, and it has to be right. When asked if he would support a scripted project about the Showtime era if the former Lakers were properly consulted, Johnson is unsure. Not somebody’s ‘I think.’ Not somebody’s ‘I saw.’” “How are you going to duplicate this? You can’t. With all that going on, it was about winning championships,” Johnson says. As an owner! You can’t duplicate this, man. “And then, the most charismatic owner in all the sports. Johnson then unbuttoned half of his shirt to capture the spirit of his mentor. Everybody’s like, ‘Aaah! We can’t get in, but we standing here!’ You can’t duplicate that. “ 200 people in the hallway saying, ‘Please, let me in!’ You can’t duplicate that. There were so many A-listers, everybody left them alone.” All of them at the height, but you know what? They got to be themselves. All these people from ‘Miami Vice,’ Don Johnson. ‘We gotta get in the Forum Club.’ I said, ‘We still playing the game!’” Every team that came in town: ‘Please, Magic!’ In the third quarter. ![]() Because it’s a club in a club, right? All the celebrities, all the beautiful people move up to the Forum Club. Then you move up to the Forum Club.”Īfter the games, the Lakers would party behind the velvet ropes of the VIP lounge tucked inside of the arena, along with who Johnson remembers as “the best, sexiest, hottest people in Los Angeles. Show you moves that you’ve only seen in the nightclub. “You can’t duplicate that,” Johnson says. ![]() They were running from upstairs, the sides. He urged Michael Jackson to return the favor by coming to a Lakers game, and Jackson reluctantly agreed even though he didn’t think the fans would let him watch in peace. Johnson had also befriended the Jackson 5, and traveled with them on three of their tours. And wouldn’t let nobody tell him the score, if he was shooting, because he had the game taped. “Jack Nicholson - the biggest actor at that time, killing it - didn’t miss a game. The crowd in the stands was also an important part of Showtime, and Johnson fondly remembers two audience members in particular. All the latest music, and all the latest dances.” We changed basketball! Fast-breaking entertainment: Every time out, Paula Abdul and them beautiful Laker Girls came out on that floor. So let’s go through it like this,” Johnson told Variety. But Johnson’s chemistry on the court with his teammates, especially Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, combined with entertainment strategies implemented by new owner Jerry Buss, turned professional basketball into a must-see spectacle.īecause of those unique conditions, Johnson believes that it’s impossible to tell the story without the involvement of the people who lived it. As explained in Johnson’s upcoming Apple TV Plus docuseries “ They Call Me Magic,” NBA games were so scarcely watched before Johnson was drafted that the primetime networks debated whether to air them at all. Showtime coincided with Johnson’s tenure on the Lakers from 1979 to 1991, at which point he retired after being diagnosed with HIV. Johnson said he refuses to watch the series, and he’s baffled that neither HBO nor the creative executives - which include executive producer Adam McKay - sought participation from him or his teammates. In a new interview for this week’s cover story of Variety, the NBA legend shared his unfiltered thoughts about “Winning Time,” HBO’s scripted drama about the Showtime era of the Lakers, which has just been renewed for its second season. “You can’t do a story about the Lakers without the Lakers,” Magic Johnson says.
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