When Ben Affleck made his sports movie Air – about the development of the Nike Air Jordan sneaker – he made the decision not to show Michael Jordan‘s face at all. The big man himself only appears briefly towards the end, and we just get a general impression of his size, and he utters a few words. However, a HBO series about Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers in the early 80s might be about to show Michael Jordan more fully, and could lead to a potential spin-off.
HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty is a sports drama series starring John C. Reilly and Adrien Brody. The first two seasons have covered the years 1979-1984. The series sets up a couple of potential spin-offs – one could focus on the Boston Celtics, for example.
However, a third season of Winning Time may well end at around 1991, which would be the perfect set-up for a spin-off that focuses on the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan. 1991 marks the end of the era when the Lakers were the kings of the NBA and when the Bulls would go onto dominate basketball in the 90s, largely because of Jordan.
Winning Time season 2 episode 6 mentions Michael Jordan for the first time, in what seems like a pretty pointed tease – as Jason Clarke’s character Jerry West breaks the fourth wall by looking directly into the camera and mentioning Jordan’s massive future impact.
Of course, if you really want an insight into Jordan, you’re probably better off going down the documentary route. The highly critically-acclaimed Netflix documentary series The Last Dance (2020) has ten episodes which focus on the rise and domination of the Bulls dynasty during the 90s, led by Jordan.
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