INDIANAPOLIS — HBO's basketball biopic TV series is back for a second season.
"Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty" showcases a basketball team that defined its era, both on and off the court.
The first season took place during the 1979-1980 NBA season, which was Jerry Buss' (John C. Reilly) first as team owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and Magic Johnson's (Quincy Isaiah) rookie year.
However, the seven-episode second season will be set across multiple NBA seasons.
"We thought that it was important to jump a few seasons to get to what people want to see. They want to see Larry (Bird) and Magic (Johnson), and they want to see that rivalry," director Salli Richardson-Whitfield said. "We want to see (Jerry) Buss and his kids, and we want to see how did Larry grow up? We want to see about Red (Auerbach) in Boston, so we really wanted to jump into more drama this season."
And Bird, played in "Winning Time" by Sean Patrick Small, gets a bigger role in the second season, which is sure to excite Hoosiers with Bird's ties to growing up in southern Indiana, playing college basketball at Indiana State and serving many roles for the Indiana Pacers.
"This season, we get to see more of how Larry grew up in Indiana and his family life. It shows him more as a full human, and you understand the respect that he had for Magic and Magic had from him," Richardson-Whitfield said. "You don't walk away thinking of him as a villain — you just think about him as the Larry Bird we all know."
Growing up in Chicago, Richardson-Whitfield has always been a Bulls fan, so is there a possibility of another basketball biopic featuring the legendary Michael Jordan?
"That would be just as good as doing this show," Richardson-Whitfield said. "I just love basketball, and I love this whole format and doing these basketball sequences. They're so amazing, and it's been so much fun. People are really going to enjoy this season of basketball."
New episodes of "Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty" are released Sunday nights on HBO and Max.