Magic Johnson is being mass-interviewed in the locker room after his first NBA championship as says “you bet” the Lakers can win another title. “Any advice for your opponents?” he’s asked.
“Better watch out.”
That exchange opens the new trailer for the seven-episode Season 2 of Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, which premieres August 6 on HBO and Max. Have a look at it above and the new poster below.
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The show’s sophomore run focuses on the period just after the 1980 NBA Finals through 1984, culminating in the first professional rematch of the era’s greatest stars: Magic (Quincy Isaiah) and the Boston Celtics’ Larry Bird (Sean Patrick Small).
“We brought home the gold,” Magic tells his teammates, “but one ring ain’t gonna keep us in that room.”
Later, coach Pat Riley (Adrien Brody) sits young Magic down for a reality check. “Look, Earvin,” he tells the kid. “You know why nobody repeats. ‘Cause you beat along the way, they spent all that time figuring out how new ways to break you down.”
Cue image of Bird and a snippet from Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.”
The show’s painstaking attention to period-specific detail shines as we are catapulted back to the 1980s Showtime era at the Fabulous Forum. We see a confident-then-pissed Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly), the cigar-chomping Red Auerbach (Michael Chiklis), the ill-fated Lakers coach Paul Westhead (Jason Segel), the Laker Girls and a lot more.
The S2 cast also features Jason Clarke, Gaby Hoffmann, Hadley Robinson, DeVaughn Nixon, Solomon Hughes, Tamera Tomakili, Brett Cullen, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Spencer Garrett, Molly Gordon, Joey Brooks, Delante Desouza, Jimel Atkins, Austin Aaron, McCabe Slye, Thomas Mann, Gillian Jacobs and Rob Morgan.
The executive producers are writer/co-creators Max Borenstein and Jim Hecht, Adam McKay, Kevin Messick, Scott Stephens, Rodney Barnes, director Salli Richardson-Whitfield and Jason Shuman.
