‘Winning Time’ depiction of Paul Westhead vs. Jack McKinney stirs up painful memories

Perhaps as a sop to those Philadelphians who managed to watch all 10 episodes of HBO’s “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” references to this city were sprinkled liberally throughout, like salt on a soft pretzel.

Amid all the overwrought performances, the gratuitous sex and nudity, the comic-book characterizations, the bad wigs, the obtrusive cinematic tricks, and the gross historical inaccuracies, Philly provided the saga of the Lakers Showtime’s origins with some of its most significant figures and moments.

The series and its featured 1979-80 season concluded, of course, in Philadelphia, where, without the injured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, L.A. defeated the 76ers in Game 6 to capture the NBA title. Philadelphia fans at that Spectrum game, not surprisingly, are shown thrusting countless middle fingers and waving obscene signs.

One of the featured characters was Philadelphia native Clair Rothman, a stern ex-Spectacor employee tasked with bringing professionalism to hedonistic Lakers owner Jerry Buss’ front office. Along the way viewers met Julius Erving, played by a 52-year-old actor who looked his age. There were brief glimpses of Bill Cosby, Earl Strom, Darryl Dawkins, and Caldwell Jones.

But most significant, the dramatic conflict at the heart of “Winning Time” was the astonishingly awkward relationship between two other Philadelphians — Jack McKinney, who that season became the Lakers coach after eight years at St. Joseph’s, and Paul Westhead, who left La Salle to become his assistant.

After 13 games of their first season together, Westhead ascended to the head coaching spot when McKinney was seriously injured in a bicycle accident. Westhead kept the job even after McKinney recovered. And while he led the Lakers to a title, he would be fired and replaced by his assistant, Pat Riley.

Like almost all the characters in “Winning Time,” for which Great Valley High grad Adam McKay was the executive producer, the McKinney and Westhead viewers see are cartoonish versions of themselves.

Westhead is dithering and indecisive. Devoid of self-confidence and riddled with insecurities, his go-to coaching strategy seems to be quoting Shakespeare. McKinney, meanwhile, is utterly humorless, jealous, vindictive, and downright cruel to his assistant and longtime friend.

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It’s little wonder that two of McKinney’s children wouldn’t watch a single episode and that the coach’s Delco-born widow made it through just five.

“One of my daughters-in-law texted me,” said Claire McKinney, 85 now and living in Madison, Wis. “She said, ‘I just watched that episode about Jack. It was awful. He was never dour like that. And he never had a pot belly.’ She was right. Jack was never dour. Unless St. Joe’s lost to Villanova.”

Claire McKinney herself shows up as a character in “Winning Time,” and her husband inexplicably calls her “Cranney” in several scenes.

“That’s my maiden name,” she said. “I don’t know how that got in there. He always called me Claire.”

There were other inaccuracies too, she said. McKinney gets credit for suggesting, in a note he scribbled and surreptitiously delivered to Westhead, that point guard Magic Johnson replace Jabbar, the ailing center, for Game 6.

“I don’t think Jack had anything to do with that,” Claire McKinney said. “Why would Paul rely on Jack at that point? He didn’t feel like he had to in the beginning of the season.”

The mother of four, who met her future husband at St. Robert’s grade school in Chester, said she understood why “Winning Time” took such liberties.

“They wanted entertainment,” she said, “so they went all out.”

Still, it pained her to see how a close friendship was represented as something dark and sinister. The relationship between the two former Big 5 coaches did grow complicated, she said, but the bitterness and backstabbing were grossly exaggerated.

“I understand that it’s fictionalized pretty heavily,” she said. “But they made Paul look like a kind of puppy dog following Jack around. Really, Paul was on the same level as Jack. He hadn’t coached yet in the pros at that point, but he’d been a good college coach. Jack and Paul were good friends. They shouldn’t have been portrayed that way.

“Jack never showed up at practices while he was recovering. Or at his office,” she said. “That never happened. He just stayed out of the way. He said, ‘It’s Paul’s team now. If I go to a game all the attention will be around me. I don’t want that. I want it to be focused on Paul.’ There was never any confrontation with Paul. It was uncomfortable, yes. It was awkward. But neither of the couples ever had any kind of conflict.”

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She also took issue with a scene in which Lakers players threaten a revolt over the up-tempo changes McKinney attempts to install during training camp.

“That was absolutely false,” she said. “He had met with each player before camp and told them what he planned on doing. They were all thrilled to be able to run more and be more active.”

(NOTE: For all the emphasis the production places on the “Showtime” style of play McKinney instituted, the ‘79-’80 Lakers averaged just three points more than the year before.)

Claire McKinney made it through just five episodes, in part because of how her husband, who died in 2018, was portrayed, but mostly because it stirred up too many painful memories.

“After they showed his accident, I couldn’t watch any more,” she said. “I didn’t want to see any scenes of him in the hospital. I was there. I knew all about that. It was just too emotional. Susan and I were watching together, and once we saw the episode that featured Jack, we just cried and cried and were so depressed for a couple of weeks. It was just awful to watch. It made everything so fresh and new.”

Their daughter, Susan, stopped at that point, too, she said. One son, John, did watch it all. But the other two children, Dennis and Ann, never saw a minute of it.

As bad as his family feels about how McKinney came off, Claire can only imagine what Jerry West and those closest to him must be experiencing. The Lakers legend, who has demanded an apology from HBO, appears throughout to be a constantly ranting lunatic.

“That was just so horrible,” McKinney said. “They had him rolling around the floor in his underwear in one scene. I don’t know why they did that. Jerry West always seemed to me to be so nice and so well turned-out and dignified.”

While Westhead gained a national reputation for the breathless offense he utilized at Loyola Marymount, Riley was leading the Lakers to more championships. McKinney, meanwhile, had short stints coaching the Pacers and Kings. He never fully regained his health and spent years working for a sporting goods company.

“It was very painful for him, emotionally and physically,” his widow said. “But he wasn’t bitter. He just got on with his life. He used to go to meetings of this 40-plus organization, where 40-somethings sit around and share leads about various jobs and go through the help wanted ads.

» READ MORE: Paul Westhead vs. Magic Johnson: The battle that foretold the future of modern sports | Mike Sielski

“He always said he was doing great, and one time my daughter asked him how he could say that after what he’d been through. He just said, ‘As long as I know my wife and children love me, I’m fine.’”

Ultimately, Claire McKinney can live with the historical errors and the skewed representation of her husband. But what stings is how the TV series reminded her of the friendship the McKinneys and Westheads once shared and how far apart they drifted after that memorably uncomfortable season.

“Jack and Paul were never really friends again,” she said. “They talked on the phone a couple of times, especially when Jack started diminishing toward his last couple of years. The Westheads reached out to us, but I just didn’t have the energy. I miss them. They were good friends. They came to Jack’s memorial service at St. Joe’s. I saw Catherine, and I promised her I’d call. Now it’s been three years, almost four, and I still haven’t done it. I don’t dislike her. We went on vacations together. We had a lot of fun. But I haven’t done it, and I’m not proud of myself.”