Summary
Episode 2 of Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers packs the punch I was hoping for. A downright incredible episode.
This review of the Hulu documentary series Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers season 1, episode 2 contains spoilers.
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In episode one of Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers, we saw the beginning of the Jerry Buss era of the Los Angeles Lakers. Everything seemed to be going great as they won the coin flip to draft Magic Johnson which ended up winning them an NBA Championship. However, his flamboyant lifestyle came to a head as his wife filed for divorce. What happens next? Let’s dive in.
Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers season 1, episode 2 review
The second episode opens with a massive bang as Magic Johnson requested to be traded unless Paul Westhead was fired as Head Coach of the Lakers. Quickly after announcing the trade request, Westhead was fired. Present-day Magic talked about how they weren’t having fun and that he wanted to get back to running and gunning. I was stunned by hearing how this unfolded.
Honestly, could you imagine if someone present-day VOCALLY requested a trade if their coach wasn’t fired? We had heard about these things happening behind the scenes, but Magic spoke that out into the world and got what he wanted. Next, we saw Pat Riley is now the Head Coach, and Jerry West returned as the offensive coach. The entire thing was interesting how it unfolded because it changed the precident for letting a player dictate who stayed or who went.
Later that offseason, Magic signed a 25-year, $25 million contract that changed the course of the Laker franchise. Jerry Buss gave him the keys to the future, and his teammates and those around the league didn’t love it. I WISH social media were around for this entire thing because, my goodness, these players, even forty years later, were bitter as bitter can be.
You know, Magic might have gotten Westhead fired, and it might have gone awry around the league, but it worked because the team was playing like they did the year they won the championship. So Riley and the team took this team back to the promised land, winning another NBA Championship. The culture around the Lakers after winning another title changed forever. They started to see celebrities come to every home game because they wanted to be part of the team.
I had a lot of complaints about the first episode, but the second episode was EXACTLY what I was looking for when I started watching the series. We are in one specific time frame and follow the chain of events chronologically. On top of that, we had some DRAMA from guys that are still not over what happened. How this was edited together made you cling to every single moment of this episode because it was drama-filled.
Overall, a massive step up from episode one. Episode two makes Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers a must-watch series every week. It was the drama, story-telling, and the on the court action that had you invested throughout the entire episode.
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