Toni Morrison famously called Bill Clinton "our first black president." This show seems to be arguing that Jerry Buss was the NBA's first black owner. That's why he's so sharply contrasted to all the other white men on the show, especially the lunatic genius Jerry West and that notorious "loser" (copyright City of Fools) Pat Riley (until, he too, becomes "black" by going full Showtime). Incidentally, Jack McKinney is neither genius nor psycho because his basketball vision is animated by a black aesthetic, jazz, rather than the simplistic, methodical plodding of classical music.

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Astute observation. Winning Time's McKinney is sort of like that character Clint Eastwood likes to write for himself- the lone white man who can intimidate the brothers and then get into his beat up Ford and listen to an 8-track of Sketches of Spain.

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General Jim wears Fort Bragg down... to get it!

Yeah, if Buss is some version of Mailer's "white negro," then McKinney is the intellectual prefiguration of that type. He traverses and transgresses racial boundaries through his "ingenious" basketball vision, but he can't fully express it because it resides purely in his mind rather than in something called a "soul". He is black enough to bring "chaotic", "street" basketball to the NBA, but he also wants to cut a bunch of his players and may commit genocide at any moment. Unlike Jerry Buss, McKinney's blackness is not fully realized. That's why the street rebels against him and puts him in a coma.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

allies still are cursed with whiteness, they are just sufficiently supportive to sit down and listen

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

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Would have been interesting to see what happens with the Lakers if McKinney does not have that accident. Does Riley ever become coach?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

In the Winning Time/City of Fools alternate universe, Riley is too much of a loser to become Lakers coach so he takes a job as Chick Hearn's butler while Magic ascends to player-coach and leads the team to 12 consecutive NBA titles.

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I did not know (or had forgotten) the actual history, so I looked it up. Spoilers ahead Westhead ends up coaching the team to a championship (with Riley as assistant), while McKinney complains that he is well enough to resume coaching. McKinney is fired or quits during the playoffs. McKinney ends up in Indiana the next year, where he wins Coach of the Year....but eventually the injury catches up with him again and he leaves.

It seems likely that McKinney would have been successful for a while and Riley would not have gotten the chance. Westhead certainly didn't appear that he was looking for the job and probably would have continued as the obedient assistant.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Definitely seems like McKinney would have had a long run there with the Lakers. Riley would probably have never gotten a shot there.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

for a show that's done by Adam McKay, methinks you're perhaps taking these intellectual readings a wee bit too far.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Thank you for confirming the accuracy of my interpretation.

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I predict that we have not even scratched the surface of a racialist narrative that will only become full blown once the Evil Celtics take the court against Our Heroes in the 1985 Finals. It will be framed as Ivory Joe Hunter prying his rightful legacy from the pale white hands of Pat Boone, Lewis Latimer reclaiming his light from illegitimate Thomas Edison, Magic and his Men overwhelming the plodding neo-Nazis from Beantown with their own Colorful style of Truth and Beauty that not even a Colonialist poetry spouting replacement coach could repress.

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General Jim wears Fort Bragg down... to get it!

You know what's harder to believe than that? That this guy played Tarkanian:

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General Jim wears Fort Bragg down... to get it!

The NBA is also in many ways a conflict between blacks and Jews. Enter Red Auerbach. Imagine being Dennis Johnson's boss.

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Yeah, the show has foreshadowed how it's going to eviscerate Larry Bird for epitomizing American whiteness.

We're also already seeing how the show attempts to define blackness in universal terms when it is set against a presumably monolithic whiteness while also contradicting itself by differentiating between varying types of blackness. For instance, the blackness of Kareem and Haywood is often pitted against Magic's blackness. The show makes it clear that their revolutionary or defiant blackness is unappealing (Kareem is a detached, standoffish figure whose politics are no longer in step with the times, Haywood fails to establish himself as a star despite his immense talent) and thus pushes them to the margins of the narrative. In contrast, Magic's blackness is magnetic and representative of the emerging 80s zeitgeist. But what is the nature of that blackness? It looks like the show will eventually tell us that Magic eschews the idea of blackness as a basis for mass politics so that he can control the terms under which his blackness becomes a commodity. In other words, Magic avoids defining himself in political terms so that he can profit from the commercial appeal of his blackness. He doesn't want to fight the system, he just wants to own part of it. And it is by jockeying for power within the system rather than challenging the legitimacy of that system that Magic emerges as the great black (neoliberal) hero of the day.

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Wasn't the old line that Bird had the stereotypical black upbringing and Magic the white one?

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Yeah. Magic in a two parent home, and he was bused to a rich white high school. Bird's father killed himself, and he grew up in squalor.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

Jordan learned from that and perfected it.

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Probably had his dad killed so he could overcome that adversity.

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Jack would have been the coach for a long time. Guy's brains were addled after the accident and even though he got the Pacers gig, he was never the same. Forgot names, plays, couldn't concentrate in a loud arena.

So who knows what would have happened to Riley. He probably still ends up becoming an assistant and figuring out his style.

I do love that this show gets you to write 150 words in a post.

And Kareem's blackness is not portrayed negatively. He's shown as the guy who gets what black people are up against. Disagree on that thought.

edit: Jack also traded the first round pick the Pacers had for Tom Owens. Huge mistake as that pick could have been Jordan.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

It's true that Kareem acutely understands the systemic racism of the moment, but his approach to effecting change is depicted as impractical, ineffective, and out of touch. What's more, his inability to connect with others is intertwined with his politics, giving the impression that Kareem is an idealist incapable of acting meaningfully in the real world.

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I think as long as they make his religion part of his story, they're going to present Kareem as a good guy.

Ain't gonna cross the muslims.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Toni Morrison was the embodiment of simplicity and plodding, methodical writing.

And I think that you guys are over thinking this mini series. There was no one in the organization and team that anyone took seriously in the early to mid eighties. It was pure hedonism, nothing more, nothing less.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

I'm not a huge fan of Morrison, but I certainly wouldn't call her writing plodding or methodical. She was one of the more inventive stylists of the post-WW II era, particularly in her attempts to redefine the modernist aesthetic generally and her engagement with/rewriting of Faulkner specifically.

In any event, I'm not sure why you're referring to some kind of historical "reality" in referencing Winning Time. The show is deeply invested in signifying its historicity even as it completely breaks from actual history. More specifically, it uses a crudely drawn identity politics narrative in an apparent attempt to rewrite the neoliberalization of American culture--and the further entrenchment of social inequality--as a moment of liberation and social progress.

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WTF? Go lay down and take a nap.

Winning Time's Incompetent White Guy of the Week for the Easter holiday was....Paul Westhead. Too passive, too nervous, too white.

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I assume those briefs shots intercut with Riley looking in the mirror were of the current real-life Riley?

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