Jerry West Makes Bold Threat In His First Public Comments on His Beef with HBO’s ‘Winning Time’

Much like the character portraying Jerry West on Winning time, the NBA legend is really angry.

The NBA legend recently spoke to former Times sports editor Bill Dwyre about “The Dream Whisperer,” a documentary film about the incredible journey of West’s former Lakers teammate Dick Barnett. But West makes his first public comments on his beef with HBO’s “Winning Time.”

According to Dwyre, West added that it will be nice to watch something accurate and positive.

West is referencing “Winning Time,” which dramatizes, and sometimes fictionalizes, elements of the Lakers’ Showtime era. West is not backing down, and he’s willing to go as far as he needs to:

“The series made us all [the Lakers] look like cartoon characters,” West told Dwyre. “They belittled something good. If I have to, I will take this all the way to the Supreme Court.”

One day, long after his celebrated NBA career had ended, Dick Barnett realized he needed to take care of something — getting his NAIA three-peat team into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

It shouldn’t be difficult, he reasoned. https://t.co/4inQu02SKZ

— L.A. Times Sports (@latimessports) April 26, 2022

Last week West went hard at HBO through a letter to HBO from his attorney, Louis R. Miller.

“You replaced the real Jerry West — a consummate professional — with his polar opposite, then portrayed this lie to the public as genuine,” the letter read. “You thereby violated the law.”

The letter also said: “To mitigate the harm you have caused, we request the issuance of a retraction of Winning Time’s false depiction of Jerry West no later than two weeks from the date of this letter. You also owe Mr. West an apology for your hurtful misrepresentation of his work and legacy, plus damages for the harm you caused to his well-earned and stellar reputation.”

Jerry needs to lighten up. No one is walking away from that show thinking about anything other than being thoroughly entertained.

It’s just a TV Show, not a documentary.

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