Winning Time Episode 9 True Story: What Really Happened & What Changed

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Warning! SPOILERS for Winning Time season 1, episode 9.

HBO's Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty episode 9 brings the Los Angeles Lakers and Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) to the NBA Playoffs, and here's what it gets right and wrong about the true story. The rookie season for Earvin 'Magic' Johnson is nearly complete in the first season of HBO's 2022 original TV show. Winning Time has continued to keep the spotlight on the Lakers' prized rookie and how the organization is functioning since Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) took over. Winning Time episode 8 showed how complicated the NBA business really is, as Magic learned a few lessons from Julius Erving, while controversy about who should be the Lakers' coach going forward started to pop up.

This is where the events of Winning Time episode 9 pick up after, as the team is in the final days of the 1979-1980 NBA season. The success of the Los Angeles Lakers comes at a difficult time for the Buss family, though, as Jerry's mother, Jessie Buss (Sally Field), is nearing the end of her life. The turmoil of Jerry's family life coincided with stresses about whether or not the Lakers would make a profit by the end of the season and everyone looking to him to decide whether Jack McKinney (Tracy Letts) or Paul Westhead (Jason Segel) should coach the team through the playoffs. All of these matters didn't impact the play of the Los Angeles Lakers, though, as they continued their winning ways.

Related: Winning Time: Was Kobe Bryant At The Lakers' 1979 Opening Game?

Just because the Lakers were winning, it does not mean that everything was running smoothly with the team. Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Solomon Hughes) were finally clicking, but Spencer Haywood's drug