Summary
- Season 2 of Winning Time accurately depicts the legendary 1984 NBA Finals and the intense rivalry between the Lakers and Celtics.
- The Celtics’ resilience and Larry Bird’s breakthrough performance played a major role in their victory over the Lakers in the 1984 Finals.
- The Lakers experienced changes and setbacks before finally dominating the NBA in the 1980s, cementing their status as one of the greatest dynasties in sports history.
Buying Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty The end of Season 2 chronicles the legendary showdown between the Lakers and Celtics in the 1984 NBA Finals. The entire season built up to the battle between Boston and Los Angeles that would eventually produce one of the greatest sporting rivalries whose impact is still felt today. The Showtime Lakers’ flashy approach contrasted perfectly with the Celtics’ blue-collar sensibilities, creating an American culture clash that seemed bigger than basketball alone. The rivalry extended to the team’s owners, Jerry Buss and Red Auerbach, whose determination to win was surpassed only by a mutual hatred of losing.
Winning time Season 2 Episode 7 accurately depicted the memorable 1984 NBA Finals, which is still considered one of the greatest championship series in NBA history. Between the notable physical elements and other heightened circumstances such as the intolerable heat of game five and Kareem’s stellar performance in game six despite suffering terrible migraines, the story essentially wrote itself and the storyline of Winning time season 2. Remarkably, 1984 would only be the launching pad for a ruthless rivalry between the Celtics and Lakers throughout the 1980s, introducing a personal level of intense competition to the NBA that revolutionized the league and changed the world ever since. face of professional basketball.
Lakers’ 1984 NBA Finals loss to Celtics explained
Winning time Season 2 does a great job of capturing the full scope of the 1984 NBA Finals without having to stretch many facts and details. Although the Lakers had several opportunities to take a sizable lead in the series, notably in Game 4 on their home court at the Forum, the Celtics found their way back into the heat of the competition. The Celtics’ resilience would become a common theme of the 1984 NBA Finals, notably thanks to Larry Bird’s game-changing performance in Game 5 in a sweltering Boston Garden. It proved that the series would not be determined solely by talent or money, but by which team most wanted to win the championship ring.
Before reaching the NBA Finals in 1984, the Lakers had ironed out many of their flaws to create a true championship-contending team. The acquisition of James Worthy in Winning time Season 2 had the Lakers in a deep playoff run in hopes of a Magic-Bird matchup that would mark their first fight for a championship since the 1979 NCAA national title game. Bird, who almost dropping out of college to become a trash collector in his hometown, certainly took some revenge on Magic for beating his Indiana State team five years earlier.
How the 1984 Lakers-Celtics Finals Changed the NBA Forever
Bird’s ability to do it all for the Celtics earned his team its eighth straight NBA championship victory over the Lakers and Lakers bragging rights from Magic and Jerry Buss, at least for one more year. The 1985 NBA Finals would see a historic rematch between the Celtics and Lakers in which Magic’s team won in a 4-2 series. The deep rivalry between the Celtics and Lakers was unlike any the NBA had ever seen before, especially since it essentially started before Bird and Magic were even in the NBA. The entertainment aspect of the Showtime Lakers reached new heights during the 1984 NBA Finals, which felt more like a Hollywood saga than any NBA championship series before.
Did Jerry Buss really leave the Lakers to his daughter Jeanie? The future of the dynasty explained
Jerry Buss created a lasting professional relationship with Magic Johnson on and off the court, but no one was more ready to take over the Lakers franchise than Jerry’s own daughter, Jeanie Buss. The final scene of Winning time season 2, which also appears to be the last of the HBO series, returns to the final scene of the Winning time pilot in which Jerry stands in the middle of the Forum with a bottle of alcohol, admiringly celebrating that he owned the Lakers and the Forum.
Jerry and Jeanie share an updated version of this moment from Season 1 in Win time closing scene, hinting at Jeanie’s eventual takeover of her father’s organization. As the series indicates, Jeanie Buss actually took over as president and majority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers in 2013 after the death of her iconic father. She became the first female majority owner of an NBA franchise to win an NBA championship with the LeBron James-led Lakers in 2020.
What happened to the Lakers players, coaches and staff after winning Season 2
The Showtime Lakers dynasty remained relatively intact throughout the 1980s, leading them to three NBA championships in 1985, 1987, and 1988. The Lakers were swept in the 1989 NBA Finals by the Isaiah-led Detroit Pistons Thomas and Dennis Rodman. Head coach Pat Riley would leave his position as head coach of the Lakers even after winning the NBA Coach of the Year in the 1989-90 season. He then briefly coached the New York Knicks before moving to the Miami Heat in 1995, where he served as both head coach and president to this day.
Magic Johnson played with the Lakers throughout his career, playing regularly until the end of the 1990-91 season. He abruptly retired after testing positive for HIV in 1991, an illness he managed to keep at an undetectable level with medication. He returned for 32 games during the 1995-96 season so he could retire on his own terms. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar retired after playing 74 games in the 1988-89 season with the Lakers. He held the title of NBA’s leading scorer until LeBron James broke his record in 2023. Jerry West remained general manager of the Lakers until 2000, responsible for the drafting of Kobe Bryant, the signing of Shaquille O’Neal and the hiring of legendary head coach Phil Jackson.
What Winning Time Season 2 Ending Really Means
THE Winning time The season 2 finale sees the Showtime Lakers at their most vulnerable point in the entire series. Although the Lakers won two NBA titles in 1980 and 1982, the roster and coaching changes in 1982 and 1983 were made with the goal of winning championships. The Lakers’ brutal loss to the Celtics in 1984 marked back-to-back NBA Finals losses, a crushing reality that risked undermining everything the organization had worked for up to that point. After being embarrassed in the 1983 NBA Finals in a 0-4 sweep, 1984 was supposed to be the Lakers’ big comeback season. Instead of making a statement about their resilience, the Lakers were left heartbroken.
Winning time season 2 appears to conclude the HBO series with its end credits sequence, which would be surprising given the historic run the Showtime Lakers would make in a potential run. Winning time season 3. If Winning time Season 2 is truly the last of the series, marking the end of the Lakers’ trials and tribulations on their road to NBA domination in the 1980s. In this light, Winning time will solidify itself as a pretty accurate depiction of how one of sports’ greatest dynasties and rivalries almost never came to be, proving the remarkable circumstances behind every sports dynasty and multiple championship series.
