DJariya

Solomon Hughes is 44. Kareem was about 36 or 37 around this time period. And some were already considering him washed up. I don't think he looked drastically older than Kareem. Kareem always looked more mature for his age even when he was playing in the 70s.

Decker

DJariya

Chapman has a large X following with 1.2M. But these petitions are ultimately meaningless.

Cusm

I know he was supposed to be the biggest trash talker of them all, not sure if he was as big of a jerk or just trash talking. I was surprised at the McHale acting sorry for the hit, I always thought him and Parish were as bad as Laimbeer for being dirty.

spainlinx0

I was shocked at that rushed ending, but I guess it makes sense with news of the cancellation.

alfredog1976

Why not? As Jeanie Buss said in podcast, there’s still a lot of story to tell. HBO selling off some of their shows anyway.

What a boneheaded decision, just like Perry Mason.

fujishig

There are some legendary stories about Bird's trash talking (and backing it up). But I'm sure it was embellished for the show, just like West.

fujishig

I thought the Lakers didn't like this show, or am I confusing shows?

Noonan

I think everyone except West changed their stance on it by season 2. Magic's initial push-back was probably just to advertise his bio, which came out at the same time. Jeanie was straight up complementing it publicly recently.

Decker

Plus her husband had a cameo role in it.

Kareem is still down on it, I believe.

The LA Times is reporting that ratings were down almost 50% for Season 2. I am kind of stunned by that.

Noonan

Same. Could it have been bad marketing? Did fans not realize it was coming back? If the concept of the show interested you enough to tune into season 1, I don't see how you would want to stop watching for season 2.

Decker

The strike definitely hurt promotion, but how could it have hurt it THAT much?

fujishig

I didn't realize it was back until this thread was made.

DJariya

No late night talk shows and Isaiah and McGinley weren’t able to go out and make more people aware it was back.

The reality is that most people just don’t pay attention to release dates or keep up with shows and pop culture that well.

There were people who commented to Jeff Pearlman, the writer of the book, that they had no idea it came back this summer.

Runaway

I loved the show, but this ending is just a disgrace. The producers did their best to make the best ending under the circumstances, but ending Winning Time with the one the biggest losses in history is just horrible.

kefrank

Yeah, this series got cancelled at the most inopportune time in the narrative. It's been an entertaining show if a little too over the top for my taste sometimes.

DJariya

With that tacked on epilogue and there are no reports of WB actively shopping it, it's highly unlikely it will be getting a continuation.

I read an article today that after the first few airings, the head of HBO told one of the producers that things don't look good and you better start thinking about a contingency plan.

It stinks, but it is what it is.

Decker

And for accuracy sake, HBO has sold the broadcast rights to completed series, but I'm pretty sure that they've never let one of their properties continue on another service (besides Inside the NFL, which I think the NFL owns). They're pretty protective of their content production.

alfredog1976

X - Formerly Twitter

nickdawgy

I watched the actual clip on YouTube and it looks like Bird helped Rambis up after the clothesline. So yeah a bit of Hollywood.

nickdawgy

I finally caught the end of the episode. Pretty cringy with the “we fucking own this” stuff. As if that’s gonna make it okay that the show was canceled. I was kind of surprised they didn’t use the pictures of the real people in the epilogue.

Still a great show.

JeffTheAlpaca

They can't do any more seasons now since they gave away the results of what eventually happened in the years to come in the closing credits

I think Showtime should pick it up and they have the perfect Network title for the show.