Lakers: Jerry West Seeks Apology Over His Depiction In HBO Series 'Winning Time'

Jerry West is seeking a retraction and an apology over his depiction in the HBO Series "Winning Time".

The HBO Series "Winning Time" has generated plenty of buzz, but not all of it has been positive. HBO's dramatization of the Lakers Showtime Era has taken a few creative liberties with the story telling. Specifically, the portrayal of the legendary Jerry West.

Mr. West, has not taken kindly to his depiction in the series. According to ESPN's Ramona Shelbourne, West and his legal team sent a strongly worded letter to HBO and producer Adam McKay over "a baseless and malicious assault" on his image.

Skip Miller, one of the representatives from West's legal team, communicated the following to McKay and the network.

"The portrayal of NBA icon and L.A. Lakers legend Jerry West in 'Winning Time' is fiction pretending to be fact -- a deliberately false characterization that has caused great distress to Jerry and his family."

They didn't stop there. In the letter, West and his legal team are demanding an apology and a retraction.

"Jerry West was an integral part of the Lakers and NBA's success. It is a travesty that HBO has knowingly demeaned him for shock value and the pursuit of ratings. As an act of common decency, HBO and the producers owe Jerry a public apology and at the very least should retract their baseless and defamatory portrayal of him."

This isn't the first headline involving West and "Winning Time". Back in March, Kobe's former agent Arn Tellum wrote a scathing article about the show's "cruel, dishonest, and staggering insensitive" portrayal of West.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of the key figures of the Showtime Era, also denounced the show as "deliberately dishonest" in an article that was released yesterday on the Hall-of-Famer's Subtack.

A formal statement from Kareem, as well as Michael Cooper, Jamaal Wilkes, and other Lakers employees, was included in the letter sent to McKay and HBO as evidence that West wasn't the "Wile E. Coyote cartoon" he's depicted as.

At this time, McKay nor HBO have responded to West's demands.