New Lakers Documentary Will Unveil Information Unseen in Previous 9 Lakers Documentaries

By Jim Tatalias

LOS ANGELES - HBO is set to produce a new documentary based on Los Angeles’s longest-running basketball franchise. 

With exclusive access to the Buss family and the LA Lakers players (similar to Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers and They Call Me Magic: The Magic Johnson Story, but unlike the docudrama Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty), this authorized documentary will once and for all tell the story of how Dr. Jerry Buss purchased the LA Lakers and turned them into a sports dynasty, a topic already examined.

Previous documentaries, including Legacy, They Call Me Magic, Celtics/Lakers: Best of Enemies, Magic and Bird: A Courtship of Rivals, Kobe Doin’ Work, Shaq, and Kareem: A Minority of One, have covered the years 1979-2021, but this documentary will instead cover the years 1980-2022.

Like the other documentaries, it will include a discussion of the contributions of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the story of how Magic Johnson walked into the first day of practice with a boombox that was too loud, and a short, sober pause during the mention of Kobe Bryant’s rape charge before it resumes with his beatification.

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But unlike those documentaries, it will feature all-new interviews with the exact same players, coaches, and executives, saying the exact same stories, but in new outfits.

When asked if the interviewees might be filmed in new locales, producers of the documentary stated, “No, pretty much a few living rooms and that same room with all the Larry O’Brien championship trophies they got there. They’ve actually already got it staged for documentary interviews.”

When asked if the interviewees might be filmed with a new camera angle, the producers of the film stated, “No.”

Jeanie Buss, controlling owner and president of the LA Lakers, said, “Finally, it’s great to have the Lakers’ real story out there. Again.”

Will it cover the heretofore little-examined Minneapolis years of the Lakers, before they moved to LA?

“Why would anyone waste time covering that?” a source tells EOTB.

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