WinningTime actor Tracy Letts explains which NBA teams he roots for: 'I was only a Bulls fan. I never understood how anybody could cheer for more than one team. And then Oklahoma City got one. I’m from Oklahoma, and we’d never had a pro sports team.'
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for “Who the F**k is Jack McKinney?,” the March 27 episode of “Like every other episode of HBO’s “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” Sunday’s episode picks up with the Los Angeles Lakers organization pinned against a wall, this time scrummaging for a new head coach after the abrupt resignation of Jerry West .
When McKinney takes over training camp, he skips no precautions in instituting his personal basketball philosophy, immediately beginning practice upon his arrival in Palm Springs and closing practice to organization leaders. McKinney believes in fast break offense — a strategy that entails pushing the ball as quickly as possible across the floor after regaining possession. “From now on, we won’t wait for anyone to give us breaks. We’ll make our own. Constant motion offense,” he explains.
What I admired about the writing of [McKinney] was the idea that he’s pretty single-minded in his pursuit. One of the things the show does so beautifully is it really delineates, very explicitly, what all the individual characters have invested in this. For [showrunner] Max Borenstein, [he was] very open about saying, “We’ve done substantial research on this.” But beyond that, it’s a creative imagining.