The second season of Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty premiered on HBO on August 6th. A new episode premiered each Sunday until the season finale on September 17th. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the same day that the finale aired, HBO announced that they would not be moving forward with the series.
As The Hollywood Reporter notes, the co-creator of the series Max Borenstein (Godzilla, Minority Report) and the director Salli Richardson (A Low Down Dirty Shame, I Am Legend) shared their reactions to this news.
Borenstein created a post on X/Twitter, writing, “Not the ending that we had in mind. But nothing but gratitude and love.”
On Instagram, Richardson stated, “When you give it everything you’ve got, you can have no regrets. I hope you enjoy the last episode of @winningtimehbo I am sure I will do many more hours of TV and hopefully many features in my future, but I can say that at this moment in time I am most proud of the work we did on this masterful show.”
Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty was created in 2022 by Borenstein and Jim Hecht (Robots, Ice Age: The Meltdown). The series revolves around the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s and is based on the biography written by Jeff Pearlman (The Bad Guys Won, Three Ring Circus) titled Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s.
Pearlman posted on X/Twitter where he reflected on the series and promoted his podcast. In this post, he stated, “I want to, truly, thank everyone for such kind words of support. “Winning Time” was one of the best experiences of my life—for me, my family. @thefamilycoach and I recorded a special ep of my pod last night to discuss, decompress. It was a glorious run.”
The series stars Quincy Isaiah (Grassland, Corporate Coffee) as Magic Johnson, John C. Reilly (Step Brothers, Sing) as Jerry Buss, Gaby Hoffmann (Uncle Buck. Volcano) as Claire Rothman, Jason Clarke (Lawless, Oppenheimer) as Jerry West, and more.
For fans of Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, the news of the cancellation comes as a disappointment.