I think the big issue of course is that these are real people and they don’t love seeing themselves depicted in a way they feel isn’t flattering or even accurate. I’d be pissed if I were Jerry. His is one of the most over the top depictions and doesn’t seem to be like him much at all. He is so over the top in the show to the point of caricature but it’s an odd caricature at that. The obsession and depression are real but the destructive outbursts? Those aren’t based in reality at all.
Plus playing Jerry West straight without the comical outbursts would make him look like an NPC or a useless background character, where’s the value in that.
Where’s Jerry’s apology for colluding with Kawhi and Balmer to try to bury the Lakers franchise? Excuse me if I lack little sympathy.
yeah, that was part of my point earlier. it's just a shame that this is where it went. but i'm not sure how much of an apology he's owed for anything, tbh. everybody could have made different decisions; only he seems like he can't get past it. the kawhi thing nearly tanked our franchise, and that was its intent. but like lue, he's still crying in his beer about it because he could have made the choice to re-join the organization, but he was insistent on his own terms, same as lue. enjoy the jv, bros.
eh, i don't blame lue for wanting a longer-term deal. a 3 year deal for a HC these days is pretty short and i'm sure he wasn't a big fan of basically being told "well we just want you here until lebron's gone and then you'll go with him" west on the other hand, is just a bitter old man at this point. he's clearly still angry at how things ended with the lakers over 20 years ago and jeanie not wanting him back (which i don't blame her for)
Tired of hearing everyone whining about every f***ing thing in every f***ing instance. Seriously. Who gives a s***. Why do people give two s***s whether some yahoos believe or dont believe what some show is faking.
if West chose to ignore it or laugh about it, everyone would have a completely different take on this. If he laughed it off and said "I have great memories from that time of my life, and it's hilarious to me to be portrayed as an out of control rageaholic. No it's not accurate at all, and I suppose I could be offended, but all Hollywood scripts take creative license to make things more interesting. Unfortunately the reality was I was a pretty boring guy, so it's not good drama. AT least they picked a handsome guy to portray me. Kind of wish they could have made me funny, a guy with lots of jokes haha." "BTW, do I get royalties?" Somebody who reacted like that, the people would root for. Would know the character is a caricature of the original. Wouldn't judge. It's not like people will watch this show and think they know the characters. I suppose in some ways - get over yourself. Laugh at yourself. But the issue for serious personality types is that is not possible. It would be better for him to let others come out and defend him than for him to speak up. He just sounds petty unfortunately.
good point, sirron. having some humility and simply stating that that's not your personal memory of your own life in a funny way would have served his legacy far better than fighting tooth and nail to preserve his legacy.
Question for you all, if someone wrote a tv series that reached millions of people depicting you doing a bunch of damning stuff that never happened (throwing objects through windows etc) to demonstrate that you are out of control, would you turn a blind eye? I mean that is the DEFINITION of defamation which is what Jerry is alleging. So he’s being a bad sport about it? He’s the freaking logo - he can get pissed off about it. I would too. Speaking of logos, the show doesn’t actually have permission to use the NBA logo, nor the Lakers name. Going to be interesting to see if there are repercussions for that.
if i were a public figure and was misrepresented, i would calmly address it and move on, i think. it's not like they're saying he's a murderer. also, again, maybe he shouldn't have intentionally sabotaged the franchise if he wanted to be treated like royalty.
Right. It's just really tough for me to feel much here for West for a couple of reasons, one being that he or one his reps could just address it and he keeps on being a very famous and rich man. The other is the very real damage he's tried to put on us. Trashing us to free agents was bad enough, but the Kawhi thing was pretty much it for me. Watching us win the title probably hurt him worse than it did Lue IMO. As was mentioned, I think Lue was actually right to try and negotiate a standard deal with us. The West thing just mainly seems personal and petty. He fires shots at us whenever the opportunity arises and multiple shots have landed. And those are just the things we know about. All I've got is shoulder shrugs for him on this.
I feel like there’s plenty of stuff we don’t know that went on behind the scenes, so I don’t really stand in judgment of either party. Logo is a Laker for life and a legend, and nothing can change that in my mind.
I tell you this much... considering what transpired with Vogel and all other things ... Do you really think West doesn't have a leg to stand on regarding his grudge with the FO?
The only thing I know about Vogel is Kurt dressed him down in front of other staff and it was uncalled for. However, he was defending Westbrook playing, so maybe it needed to happen? I think his being fired was reported in the news before he was officially let go. Inside sources do stuff like that all the time. I don't really recall what caused the split with Jerry. I think Phil was a bit of a control freak, and was pretty disrespectful to Jerry in a locker room incident. Was that a choose him or choose me moment for the front office that they failed on? Can't say, but at that point, they felt they needed to roll with the coach that could deliver a championship with their roster. There seem to be very different people involved in both situations, so I have no idea if it's appropriate to connect them as a pattern or not. I do miss the days where the Laker trades came out of nowhere and nobody knew what was going to happen before it did. Felt like a class act above all of the rest of how the NBA teams operated. Doesn't seem like that any longer.
I knew when I saw the over the top Jerry West stuff in the early episodes I had a feeling that there would be some issues. On a different note, I’ll say this - other than the Jerry West character I think the casting and the actors are first rate. I’ve got to give them a ton of credit for that. Magic, Kareem, Jerry Buss and Cookie are just superb. Norm Nixon’s son as Norm? Brilliant. Brody as Riley is perfect. Also Wood Harris (Avon Barksdale!!) as Haywood. It’s a fantastic cast.
if jerry's gripe with the FO goes back to how much he was being paid during his tenure as GM and phil coming in and immediately getting paid more, then he really needs to move on because that was over 20 years ago. i understand why he'd be frustrated at that considering all the work he had put in and the success, but at some point it's time to move on as for wanting to come back but being told to F off by jeanie several years back, i don't blame her for not wanting him back when reports are that he meddled into her and phil's relationship. i think those two factors are the reason for his bitterness towards the lakers and all i have to say is that he needs to move on. not to mention he already tried getting his revenge with the kawhi thing
Jerry's old he might be going senile. Younger years he might have been able to handle it better. But this show is definitely entertaining, but obviuously most aren't going to like fictionalizations of them unless its fictionalizxed in a good light.
Magic torched the laker organization on espn first take, and they welcomed him back, but bridges were burned with west, I think it has more to do with contact disputes, some bad blood there.
