The first season of Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty has yet to premiere, but HBO is already thinking about Season 2.
“If the stories are there and the different eras are there, why not keep exploring it?,” HBO content chief Casey Bloys toldThe Hollywood Reporter, which went on to report that the network has “quietly optioned Pearlman’s follow-up, which takes readers through the Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal era of the Lakers.”
Published in 2020, Jeff Pearlman’s book Three-Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty chronicles the Shaq and Kobe relationship that brought three consecutive titles to the Lakers’ storied franchise before they ultimately chose to go their separate ways.
Three-Ring Circus came out eight months after the tragic helicopter crash that killed Bryant, his daughter Gigi, and seven others. Since the book appears to paint an unflattering picture of a younger Kobe, Pearlman penned a note for his fans, who were still reeling from his death, acknowledging that the accounts in Three-Ring Circus don’t represent the person he went on to become.
“The Kobe Bryant of 1996 to 2004 is not the Kobe Bryant of 2005 to January 26, 2020,” Pearlman wrote, perTime. “He was not then the contemplative adult who raved of having four daughters. He was not then the doting husband. He was not then the Academy Award winner. He was not yet comfortable in his own skin.”
Bryant’s former coach Phil Jackson is quoted as calling him a “juvenile narcissist,” while Shaq said that during those years, “nobody wanted to play with Kobe.” Former NBA player Olden Polynice spoke about a time when he managed to restrain O’Neal after he and Kobe got into a fight during a pick-up game over the offseason. “And I’m telling you, if Shaq got loose he would have killed Kobe Bryant,” Polynice said. “I am not exaggerating…He wanted to end Kobe’s life in that moment.”
Over the last several years of Bryant’s life, the two made peace with one another, and despite their differences in the past, Shaq acknowledged that he “lost a little brother” when Kobe died.
Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, which is based on Jeff Pearlman’s book Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty, will debut on HBO next month on March 6.
