Forget Winning Time and the Lakers, FX is developing a series about the Clippers and Donald Sterling
The series will star Laurence Fishburne as former Clippers coach Doc Rivers
Aux News Donald Sterling
Los Angeles basketball is the hot new thing on television, even if neither team is doing especially well in the actual NBA season, but maybe that’s why dramatizations about the exciting events in L.A. basketball history have become big business? Either way, HBO has Winning Time, Adam McKay’s series about the Showtime Lakers and their championship dynasty (starring John C. Reilly, Quincy Isaiah, and Solomon Hughes), and now FX is getting into the game with The Sterling Affairs, a limited series about the L.A. Clippers that… sounds like a lot less fun.
The show is based on the ESPN podcast of the same name, and as indicated by the title, it will revolve around “the downfall” of team owner Donald Sterling, who was heard making a bunch of racist comments in a leaked recording. Within days, NBA players began protesting and league commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling from the NBA and enacted (long and complicated) proceedings to force him and his wife (who weren’t on especially solid ground at the time, if you can believe that) to sell the team.
Rather than focusing on Sterling, though, it sounds like the series will focus on Doc Rivers, the Clippers’ coach at the time, who will be played by Laurence Fishburne. Opposite him will be Jacki Weaver, playing Donald Sterling’s wife, Shelly, but the press release announcing this stuff doesn’t say who will be playing Sterling himself yet. (Though, if the idea is “this is what the team was going through as Sterling detonated,” you could probably get away with not including the famous racist, if FX was so inclined.)
The Sterling Affairs will be written by Gina Welch, who previously worked on Feud: Bette And Joan and Castle Rock, both of which have a bit of relevance to this project. It’s sort of about a feud, for starters, and the idea of there being a second basketball team in Los Angeles that nobody has ever heard of is the kind of creepy twist that only Stephen King would imagine. (This news story was written by a Chicago White Sox fan, so know that any jokes about the Clippers come from a place of love and understanding.)
14 Comments
One thing I think Sterling’s racist comments show is just how much cognitive dissonance there can be with regards to prejudice. He’d owned a team in a mostly black league for 33 years and yet he didn’t want his girlfriend to bring black people to his games.
I’m an avid NBA fan and am down for basically anything FX does given their track record of great TV…but this sounds terrible
The series I’ve been waiting for! Losing Time! Who will play Danny Ferry, who refused to play for them? Benoit Benjamin? Olden Polynice?
Posted this in the Girl from Plainview but what is with this string of utterly dour shows that are based on real-life terrible people? Of all the stories you could choose to tell about the NBA, you’re picking one about a horrible team owner and person who presided over a mostly forgettable franchise? Even with Paul, Griffin, and Jordan, the Clippers never made a NBA Finals…Like what’s next…a mini-series about Daniel Snyder refusing to change his team’s name?
It’s like an Asylum knockoff of Winning Time without the self-awareness.
Winning Time is a spectacular show. The guys playing Kareen Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson are killing it.
I’m a sucker for good sports movies and shows and hot damn is Winning Time close to perfection. The casting is stellar and I love the camera work, lens filters, etc. So good.
I’m enjoying it. The one thing that bugs me is they changed some pretty small details to better fit their narrative. Like making Paula Abdul the original choreographer for the Laker girls (she did eventually have that job but she started as just a member of the squad). Or showing Kobe at the Clippers game (possible but not confirmed). Like I get that the show isn’t going to be 100% accurate and that they have to manufacture some things to keep story moving. But why make up the small details which don’t really add much to the story? Would the Paula Abdul cameo have changed if she was just a member of the LA Lakers vs the choreographer from day one?I also think a show like this should be paired with a 30 minute after-show that talks about what was shown accurately and what is different. Like I know Magic hugging Kareem and Kareem telling him there were 81 games left actually happened. But did they actually almost get into a fistfight over Kareem not hustling? Was Jerry West really such a nut case? Did that dude who tried to bring Tark to the Lakers actually get whacked?Part of the appeal of the show is that it’s portraying a real-life team, seems like it makes sense to give viewers a sense of what is real and what isn’t.
Have you read Jeff Pearlman’s book, which most of the show is based on? If not, I highly recommend it. Some answers to your questions that’s in the book and also that I’ve picked up on thru various other books/media over the years;-I do believe Kareem and Magic actually did get in a tussle. I don’t remember right off hand so that part might not be 100% accurate. What I do remember is Kareem and Magic did not get along for quite awhile, mostly due to the two being polar opposites personality wise. Kareem later warmed up to Magic the longer they played together.-Jerry West was a bit of an asshole but not to the degree he’s portrayed on the show (which is mostly for dramatic/comedic effect). He swore like a sailor and would have bouts of depression/anger, largely stemming from what he attributes to dealing with the trauma of his abusive father (which the show briefly hints at). West goes into detail in his own book.-Tark’s friend really was wacked and likely by the mafia. But it didn’t play out the way it did on the show. Tark’s friend supposedly ran numbers for the Chicago mob in Vegas and was skimming off the top. He got found out and they killed him. It was unrelated to the Lakers search, though people have speculated that the mob may of have some kind of hand in Tark/UNLV considering how close Tark was to that man (whose name escapes me right now). Also different irl was Buss solely didn’t pursue Tark. It was both Cooke and Buss. The sell hadn’t been completed at the time and Cooke was a bigger fan of Tark than Buss if I remember correctly.-One other fun fact that’s different from the show; Pat Riley was already an announcer 2 years before Magic joined the team. The way the show has done it, its his first season.
Will check out the book and appreciate the response – all interesting points. Riley was the other guy that seemed to get the short end of the stick in terms of his portrayal lol. But I dislike Pat Riley as a coach because he had a big role in stopping Pistons from making a third Finals in 2000s so I mostly found that funny.
Sterling is a dead ringer for late stage Val Kilmer.
How about a movie about the Isiah Thomas-era in NY?Or would that be too traumatizing for the general public?
If you say Olowokandi man three times in the dark, he appears and the Clippers waste their first overall pick on him.
Look , to me, a Celtics fan , an 80s Lakers TV show is basically one of those ‘from the villains point of view’ things like Hannibal or Cruella , so hey! A bleak Clippers show ..sure , why not!