While ‘Winning Time’ focuses on the Lakers dynasty, Adam McKay’s Philly roots remain firmly intact

The Malvern kid was 12 years old when Julius Erving executed one of the greatest shots in NBA history, a can’t-believe-your-eyes elevation underneath the Spectrum basket, around twin skyscrapers Mark Landsberger and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and skyward for a one-handed, windmill reverse layup that became Dr. J’s signature.

“I didn’t watch it on TV, but I saw the highlights on [Channel 6] Action News and remember seeing Dr. J’s famed up-and-under move and being blown away. That might have been the exact moment I became an NBA fan,” said Hollywood director/producer/writer Adam McKay, who recently recalled his memories of the 1980 NBA Finals between the 76ers and eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers, a series featuring that otherworldly Erving basket in Game 4.

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McKay, who was born in Denver and later lived a small chunk of his childhood in Worcester, Mass., moved to Malvern when he was around 10. He graduated from Great Valley High School in 1986. By that time, the Sixers had avenged their two NBA Finals defeats at the hands of the Lakers, sweeping Kareem, Magic, coach Pat Riley, and the rest of Showtime for the 1983 championship.

Years later, after he had achieved fame directing comedy hits like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and had written for Saturday Night Live, McKay came across Jeff Pearlman’s book Showtime about the 1980s Lakers dynasty. McKay had never strayed from his Sixers rooting interests, but he saw Pearlman’s book as an opportunity to tell a great basketball story that just so happened to have several Philly story lines.

“We thought a lot about that in writing it. Philly is central to this story in a lot of ways,” said Max Borenstein, the writer/showrunner of HBO Max’s Winning Time, which is the multi-episode series adapted from Pearlman’s book. “I knew Adam was from Philly and he was a producer on the project. I wrote the pilot and sent it to Adam’s producing partner, Kevin Messick, and a couple days later, got a phone call from [them]. Adam said, ‘I want to do this. I want to direct this pilot. I love this show.’ He’s a huge basketball fan, which I knew a little bit and became way more aware of later.”

McKay directed the Winning Time pilot, but it isn’t until later in the HBO series that viewers are introduced to Jack McKinney and Paul Westhead — the two Philly-born basketball coaches who were part of the Lakers’ 1980 title. After the Lakers hired him, McKinney coached only 14 games that season because of a horrific bicycle accident and resulting head injury. Westhead coached the rest of the season, including the team’s title run.

There were challenges in developing the McKinney and Westhead roles, however, especially with the lack of video archives and source material from that era. The former coach at St. Joseph’s, McKinney died in 2018.

“Even for the few basketball fans that know McKinney coached the Lakers and was instrumental in their offense, very few of them really know anything about him,” Borenstein said. “Basketball wasn’t covered in the way like the blanket coverage that we get today.”

» READ MORE: Jerry West on his depiction in ‘Winning Time’: ‘If I have to, I will take this all the way to the Supreme Court’

Tracy Letts, the veteran actor who plays the intense, binder-carrying McKinney, had appeared in the McKay-directed film The Big Short and said he “did not have to audition” for the McKinney role.

“It was a straight offer,” Letts said. “I don’t know if my previous work with Adam helped me get the job, though it probably didn’t hurt. I knew nothing about Jack McKinney prior to this gig. My prep work involved reading the source material and learning the scripts. The rest was imagination and the guidance of [the writers] and the directors.”

Actor Jason Segel, who plays Westhead, was someone McKay knew “for years” through McKay’s director friend, Judd Apatow.

“It’s been cool watching [Segel] taking on more and more dramatic roles,” McKay said. “With Westhead he gets to play all styles and really nailed it.”

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Despite the Lakers’ dynasty serving as the focal point of Winning Time and the fact that he lives in L.A. full-time, McKay said he is still “a full-on, 100% Sixers fan.” He’s good friends with Sixers president Daryl Morey, and is rooting for the club in the playoffs.

You can take the kid out of Philly, but you can’t take the Sixers fandom out of the kid.

“Dr. J and Andrew Toney got my attention, [Charles] Barkley made me lean in, and Allen Iverson sealed the deal,” said McKay, who was a teenager when the Sixers last won a title.

“The ‘83 Finals are much more vivid for me,” he added. “Toney was my favorite player. His nickname because of how well he played against the Celtics was the ‘Boston Strangler.’ Which as a kid was both terrifying and very cool. And Moses Malone was such a force. Maybe the greatest offensive rebounder ever. To this day I’d put that team up against any in NBA history.”