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The craziest, brightest and sexiest team in the NBA is in a new series from HBO. It's about the Lakers of the 80s - Bank shot - Blogs

What should you be prepared for?

On Sunday, in a modern world light years away from our Middle Ages, Winning Time, a series dedicated to the legendary Lakers dynasty of the 80s, was released.

Like The Last Dance, it consists of ten episodes, but, unlike The Last Dance, it is not a documentary.

Adrien Brody will play Lakers head coach Pat Riley.

John C Reilly, owner of the Jerry Bass Club.

Jason Clark - general manager of Jerry West.

The slogan of one of the trailers succinctly reveals the summary: "Two things made me believe in God - it's sex and basketball" .

The Lakers of the 1980s are exactly that, a bubbling two-ingredient cocktail.

Owner Jerry Bass not only positioned himself as the main playboy of Los Angeles. He imagined the team exactly as the embodiment of sex: from orgasmic run-n-gan to a support group that was the first in America to get naked.

His daughter Ginny Bass appeared in Playboy magazine in full detail.

The city's three main mansions—the Playboy Mansion, the Jerry Bass Mansion, and the Magic Johnson Mansion—followed roughly the same rules of conduct.

The legendary Forum Arena lived in the same way.

The Forum was a fantasy land, Magic Johnson's wife recalled. - Everything was for show - businessmen came there with sluts arm in arm. There is a man in a black suit and a white shirt, and next to him is a woman in a very short skirt. The first time I went there, I watched a girl in an orange dress, very tight, with a huge cleavage, from which boobs fell out, paced on the parquet. Men immediately wrote down phone numbers and passed them on to her as if they were judges at the Olympic Games ... It happens everywhere: men come after business and choose a woman for themselves, but nowhere does it look so open. On the east coast, men never show themselves in public with vulgarly dressed women. Here they want to be noticed.”

This era of flashy basketball and "very aggressive women" (described by one of those Lakers players) ended with the opening of the series with Magic Johnson's announcement that he was diagnosed with HIV.

In 11 years this team reached the final 9 times and became the champion 5 times.

The film itself is based on Jeff Perlman's documentary Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Lakers.

And here are 15 of the best stories from it to get you ready to watch.

Why Los Angeles is Sin City

When building the Forum, then-Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke insisted on having a place in the arena where he could host guests and business partners. This is how the so-called "Club Forum" appeared, which under Cook was a very stiff establishment with a kitchen, a bar, a restaurant and a conference room. Rare guests of the club had to follow a certain dress code and listen to slow music in the heyday of the disco era.

When Jerry Buss bought the Lakers, he saw great potential in the Forum Club. The man who replaced organ music with a bravura orchestra, who approved of the idea of ​​the "Lakers girls" and their revealing outfits, who filled the arena with show business stars, wanted to create a paradise for the cream of the then society.

Bass's efforts turned the Forum Club into what the Pistons' John Sulley soon described as "the sexiest place in the league." Hours before kick-off, The Club was filled with the hottest members of the society at the time, forcing the attendants to place bets on whether John Travolta, Jack Nicholson or Charlie Sheen would show up tonight; the owner of the establishment himself, surrounded by a couple of Playboy models, enjoyed the knowledge that all these influential people were in his building in order to look at his team. However, what happened in this institution before the match cannot be compared with the after-match parties.

As soon as the game was over and the regular fans were heading home, the Forum Club exploded with a palette of colors and neon lights.

“We ran to the locker room, took a shower in a hurry and rushed to the Club. We, the substitutes, needed to be there before the Magic and Nixon arrived, so that we could get at least one woman, ”recalls Clay Johnson, the Lakers’ reserve point guard.

“I'm sure teams from other cities enjoyed the Club more than even our guys. For them, it was a kind of escape from reality, a vacation away from Milwaukee, Detroit and other less interesting places. It was as if written on their faces “OK, you kicked our asses, now show me where the entrance to the Forum Club is,” Linda Rambis grins.

“Many players simply couldn't wait until the end of the match to go upstairs to the Club. And how can you blame them for this? – Wes Matthews, who joined the Lakers in the late 1980s as a backup point guard.

"If you couldn't hook a girl at the Forum Club, you couldn't hook her anywhere else," Jeannie Bass says.

The most glamorous place in Los Angeles was packed with the most beautiful women in the state. Specially hired people (among them even the Hollywood actor Miguel Nunez) looked for attractive women in the stands of the Forum during matches and handed them an invitation to the Club. The beauties of the Lakers Girls, along with a salary, free meals, a chance to earn some fame, also received free access to the Club. For women, a pass there was a pass to the highest level.

“Incredibly beautiful women everywhere. In ordinary clubs, guys get girls. In the Forum Club, everything was the other way around, ”Michael Cooper recalled.

How Jerry Buss became the owner of the club

On May 27, 1979, businessman Jerry Buss bought the Lakers from Jack Kent Cooke.

Sports Illustrated tried to put this complex deal in simple terms for its readers: “Buss and his associates will pay $43.5 million for The Forum and Raljon Ranch near Bakersfield. Buss will pay $24 million for the Lakers NBA team and the Kings NHL team, and will own them alone. He and his partners will receive a 10 million mortgage on Forum. Cook in exchange can choose between $37.5 million in cash or $20 million in cash plus $37.5 million in real estate from a list compiled by Buss's Mariani-Buss Associates Corporation. Cook has been given a month to make a decision, but Bass has already expressed his hope that Cook would prefer a property exchange that is tax-free, as the cash payment would cost Cook £9.millions of fees from the state.

What was not mentioned in the article, however, was that Jerry Bass gave Cook the famous Chrysler Building, one of New York's landmarks. As one of the lawyers who handled the legal side of the transaction noted, "It was incredible to be involved in cases in which entire corporations and buildings were exchanged like chips in a casino."

At the end of all negotiations, Ginny, daughter of Jerry Buss, said: “It was certainly cool that dad became the owner of the Lakers, but getting the Forum at the age of 18? When I heard about this, I exclaimed, “Are you saying that when Rod Stewart plays a concert at L. A., I can take the entire front row for myself?”.

A couple of hours after closing the deal and shaking hands with Cook, Jerry Bass bought a bottle of Jack Daniels, entered his now-owned Forum, turned on the spotlight in the center of the court, sat down on the floor and got drunk, shouting: “It's all mine! Your mother, all this belongs to me!

The day after the NBA office approved the deal, Jerry Buss went to celebrate in a one-room apartment on Doheny Street, where his crush Debbie Zafrani, a Playboy model who was half her lover's age, lived.

Linda, Debbie's sister, recalls that evening: “He came to spend time with us as usual. He told us very often that he loved the Lakers and would one day own them. My sister and I are ordinary people from Chicago, and we took his words as the antics of an eccentric rich man. However, that evening, he collapsed with us and exclaimed, “I bought the Lakers! We need to celebrate!" It took me a long time to believe him."

Why did the man who invented Showtime basketball only spend 19 years with the team?matches

In his first press conference as head coach, a beaming Jack McKinney admitted that his basketball philosophy is relatively simple:

“I wish we could run as much as possible, keep moving. I would like our attack to be mobile, and not stand and look at Karim, he needs to be unloaded.

McKinney was immediately recognized by all the players. He ignored those who felt that Johnson was better suited to be a power forward than point guard. He was in constant conversation with the speedy Haywood, a 30-year-old forward of boundless talent and emotional closure. He stopped training to chastise Abdul-Jabbar. McKinney was the perfect coach for the perfect team.

“He created Showtime,” explains Norm Nixon. – Do not forget about it. You can talk about me, about Karim, about Irvine, about Pat Riley. But it was Jack McKinney who created Showtime.

…

On his way to the tennis courts, McKinney rode his bicycle to the intersection between Whitley Collins Drive and Stonecrest Road. He slammed on the brake to stop in front of a small hill. But for some unknown reason, the mechanism jammed, the wheels were blocked, and the bike stopped abruptly - McKinney flew over the silver handlebars and fell headlong to the concrete. “His body slid down the street like a stone across a pond,” Richard O’Connor of Sports Illuistrated later wrote.

This is what the only witness told the police:

“I stopped at a red light. A cyclist pulled up to an intersection. As far as I remember, he did not drive fast. He seemed to be driving at an average speed, and then slowed down even more and looked around the corner. He seemed to start to slow down, and then something happened ... the bike remained behind him, and he fell forward and flew 2-3 meters on his stomach.

McKinney was practically unconscious - he could move, but looked like he was passed out. He breathed loudly, wheezing, as when people snore. He was bleeding from his mouth.

He was in a coma for three days, and then for another three weeks in a semi-coma ... December came, the doctors decided that McKinney could come to the Lakers game as a spectator. There he was warmly greeted by Bass, who asked how his recovery was going. McKinney didn't answer. Not because he was rude, he just didn't recognize him...

When the team appointed Paul Westhead as head coach, McKinney forgot to mention it. John McKinney, Jack's third oldest son, picked up the phone and heard Frank Brady from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Is your father at home?”

“No, can I give him something?”

"Tell him that Frank Brady called him asking for his reaction to the Jerry Bass press conference."

"What press conference?"

Jack and Claire McKinney were returning from Portland. As usual, they chatted, listened to the radio, and then decided to stay at a hotel in Santa Rosa and spend the night there. Jack called home to tell him about it. John picked up the phone.

"Father, have you heard the news?"

"What's the news?"

"You were fired."

“I still remember that moment. Then for the first time I realized what kind of shit people can be, ”says another son of Jack Dennis.

And yet, although McKinney learned the bad news from his own son, Bass was correct in his assessment. McKinney was originally supposed to join the team in mid-March. But Bass knew it was impossible.

“My father is a very worthy man,” Ginny Bass said. He wanted to do everything right, although it was incredibly difficult. I'm sure he didn't see any other way."

“I couldn't admit it at the time,” McKinney says, “but Dr. Bass was right. I wasn't ready."

About Magic Johnson's preferences

A couple of weeks after the Lakers won the first pick in the draft, 19-year-old Irvin Magic Johnson arrived in Los Angeles. As the nation's most famous college basketball player at the time, Johnson struggled to decide whether he should return to Michigan State for his third year or enter the NBA draft. He was invited to the City of Angels by Jack Kent Cooke, at that time the owner of the Lakers. The parties had to decide whether cooperation was possible. At the meeting, held in the trophy room of the Forum, in addition to Cook and Johnson, Magic's father, his two agents George Andrews and Charles Tucker, and Chick Hearn were present.

Cook, as a man of high society and spoiled by success, ordered a fish delicacy for lunch for the guests. However, Irwin, a 19-year-old boy from a poor family with ten children, stared at his plate in disgust.

"Boy, do you even know how much this fish costs?" Cook growled.

“Mr. Cook, if you don't mind, I'd rather have a hamburger and fries,” Johnson replied.

The angry owner of the "lake" shouted in the direction of the attendants:

“Somebody get this guy a hamburger! You heard me, regular damn hamburger!”

And while Magic was enjoying his lunch, Cook began negotiations with the question of financial compensation. Irwin, knowing that the best player in the NBA at that time, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, received 650 thousand a year, answered:

“Ideally, I would like to receive 600 thousand. Plus pay me a scholarship so I can graduate from Michigan State.”

Cook chuckled and replied:

“Let's clear something up. I'm not going to pay for your education. I graduated college on my own, and if I can do it, so can you. We offer you 400 thousand a year. Maybe it's not what you expected, but it's a pretty impressive amount. Let me remind you that the Lakers have made the playoffs 17 times in the last 19.years. Of course, I would like you to play for us, but the world has not converged on you like a wedge.

"Well then, I'll go back to Michigan," Magik shrugged.

Cook was simply amazed. After some thought, he suggested that Johnson's team stay at L.A. for the night and meet at the Forum the next morning to continue negotiations.

On his way to the hotel that evening, Irvin Johnson Sr., who worked several jobs at the same time to feed his ten children, asked his son, who had just refused to eat expensive fish and turned down a generous offer: “Son, I’m all my life I won't make as much money at the factory as he's offering to pay you a year. And you will be doing what you love to do. Do not be greedy".

The next day the parties agreed on the terms of the contract. The $500,000 salary made the Magic the highest paid rookie in NBA history at the time. Satisfied, Cook allowed his team's newest star to order lunch.

Pizza! Let's get pizza!" – enthusiastically exclaimed the guy.

After a couple of minutes, one of the richest businessmen in the US sunk his teeth into the first slice of pizza in many, many years of his life and said:

"Well, not bad."

About Magic Johnson's first training sessions

One of the players didn't care about Magic's extravaganza. Ron Boone, a swingman who had been in the league for 11 years and was trying to get on the team, had seen it all and wasn't going to put up with it. Drafted 11th overall, Boone has spent his entire career in the shadow of the majors and stars.

“Boone was a tough, skilled guy,” said Michael Cooper. “He has seen a lot.”

In one particularly heated practice session, Boone deliberately elbowed Johnson in the back of the head in a rebounding contest. Johnson looked at him: "You just know that you will answer for this."

“Move your rolls, newbie,” Boone replied. "You won't do anything."

Johnson turned and punched Boone in the neck. He fell to the parquet.

"I won't put up with this shit," the newcomer shouted.

McKinney removed both from training.

As Johnson walked into the dressing room, he looked around at everyone and said, "I may be a rookie, but I won't let any of you behave like that." Boone said nothing more. His fate at the club was sealed.

“Ron scored a lot of points for Utah in the ABA and considered himself an extraordinary player. Magic just put him on his ass. He tried to behave within the framework, he just showed that he was not going to endure, ”recalls Cooper.”

Why everyone thought Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was a jerk

“Everyone hated him because he was a jerk,” said Nuggets center Danny Shays. “His farewell season followed that of Dr. Jay. When Julius came to Denver, he was just incredible: he talked about how much this city meant to the ABA, how much he would like to play for us. When Karim arrived, no one wanted to go to the ceremony. No one. As a gift, we gave him a ski trip to Vail, and everyone hoped he'd break his leg there.

Karim brought out the worst in people. When he wrote the book and came to Denver to promote it, not a single journalist came to see him. “Yes, you went. You have been ignoring us for 15 years, and now you want our help?”

...

On June 30, 1988, the Lakers arrived at the White House to meet President Ronald Reagan. During the tour, Adbul-Jabbar bombarded the guide with questions. At some point, he drew attention to one of the paintings.

"Sorry."

"Yes."

"Did you say that this picture was painted in the 19th century?"

"That's right."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Oh... yes."

"I don't know," Jabbar pointed to a tiny detail, a peculiar kind of quotation marks. “After all, these things were invented only in 1908.”

All the players laughed.

“We'll come back to this later,” the guide said. - Let's continue".

Abdul-Jabbar concluded his introduction to the White House by shaking hands with Reagan and telling him, very sternly, that he completely disagreed with his principles and policies. The President smiled, but, of course, was very glad to say goodbye to the seven-foot liberal.

…

“Abdul-Jabbar has been at war with Rich Levine, a former UCLA journalist for the Herald Examiner, for years.

In 1978, Levin wrote an article in which he reproached the center for participating in charity as if he were receiving $5,000 a month.

“I don't talk to you anymore,” Jabbar replied, and he kept his word. When Levin entered the elevator, he got out of it. If he was somewhere near his locker in the locker room, then Jabbar would fall silent and wait for him to move away.

“I don't think Karim is a bad person,” says Levin. He is a heavy man and rather gloomy. Everyone praised him for his high intelligence, but I'm not sure about that…”

…

“September 29, 1984, Adbul-Jabbar was driving his black Mercedes down Midvale Avenue when he collided with a cyclist. He flew over the hood and bruised his thigh.

“The Giant got out of the car – he was not happy,” recalled Andy Meisler, a 32-year-old newspaperman. “I turned around and said, 'Look, I'm to blame, I'll cry, no problem.'

Meisler finally changed his mind. So Abdul-Jabbar went to court and ended up winning $571.67.

But the general consensus was: what kind of millionaire is he who sues a beggar cyclist?

…

Karim hated signing autographs.

“A little boy would come up to him and say, 'Fuck you,'” says Linda Rambis. “But other than that, he was an incredible professional.”

“We were in Salt Lake City once,” recalls Josh Rosenfeld. - We were going to the arena, and then a car stopped, a man jumped out - he left his wife and child in the car. He ran up to us: “Karim, this is the best day of my life! My wife has just been discharged from the hospital, I'm taking them home, and now I met my favorite player. Will you sign my autograph for my son?”

Karim walked past him. He just walked by pretending not to notice him. And the peasant turned and shouted to him: “Hey, Karim, fuck you, you goat, you understand!”

Karim smiled and said, "I'm glad I didn't autograph this particular gentleman."

…

In theory, Abdul-Jabbar could be very nice.

It was he who taught undrafted rookie Irv Kiffin how to use chopsticks at Benihan's restaurant.

It was he who sent Ron Boone's son a pair of autographed goggles for his birthday.

In the early 1980s, Lakers reservists Mike McGee, 195 cm, 86 kg, and Larry Sprigs, 201 cm, 105 kg, came to practice wearing the same jerseys. Abdul-Jabbar sneaked into their drawers and, while no one was looking, swapped the T-shirts.

“I came in after the game and Cap was laughing his ass off,” Spriggs recalled. “I think, 'What happened to the guy?' And so I began to pull on a T-shirt, and it was almost new, and I could not understand why it was small for me. And on Gither, his T-shirt hung in a sack. Jabbar was laughing all over the dressing room - as if it was the funniest event in his life."

On another occasion, Michael Cooper bet Johnson that he could sneak into the locker room and grab the sports section of the Los Angeles Times from Jabbar's hands. Everything worked out for him - only the center promised to take revenge. A couple of weeks later, when Cooper fell asleep on the plane on the way from Detroit, Abdul-Jabbar crept up to him and put some Nair (hair removal product) on his head. “Suddenly, Coop wakes up and starts yelling from the burn,” says Gary Witty. “His head is smoking, and there is a coin-sized hole in his hair. And Karim was sitting there and cackling: "Heh, heh, heh."

How Spencer Haywood planned to kill coach Paul Westhead

“Haywood's brain was saying no. His heart said no. Every part of his body wanted him to get away from this... somewhere.

Instead, he continued to use crack. By three he had not yet gone to bed. His arms and legs did not obey him. He decided to have a couple of drinks to calm himself down. Slept a little. Then he got behind the wheel. Although his body was made of wood, he managed to drive a car. Everything worked out. He could control the situation. Hell, he could do it.

Then he stopped at a red light and fell asleep.

He woke up from the roar of honking cars and drove on. He passed out twice more on the way to the gym. Then decided to behave as usual. He greeted his partners, parked the car and went to the room where Westhead was debriefing the video with the team. Hrrr. Haywood fell asleep again. Then the team went to the warm-up.

“We were lying on our backs, and the cold parquet looked like a featherbed,” he recalled. Everything was hidden in the fog. I felt as if I was rising from the ceiling, as if I had already died. I could hear the planes flying nearby, and then everything was out of sight.”

When Haywood came to, he was sent home.

…

Haywood was suspended until the end of the season. Then he will be paid only a quarter of the money: “This is more than he deserved,” Abdul-Jabbar will add.

Haywood plunged into a narcotic frenzy of self-pity and frightening designs. Only Jamal Weeks visited him after. Everyone else became his enemy.

"I was driving from the Forum and I thought Paul Westhead was going to die," Haywood explained. He called a friend of Gregory's from Detroit, and they came up with a plan of action. They decided to break the brakes on Westhead's car, and when the coach drove down the long winding road from his home in Palo Verde, push his car off a cliff.

“The guys were going to do it for free. Just for the sake of friendship and pride in being able to help old Spencer,” Haywood said.

Shortly before the alleged murder, he was on the phone with his mother, and she sensed something sinister in his voice.

"You're up to no good, aren't you?"

Eunice Haywood promised to report him to the police if something happened.

“I will betray you myself. I wasn't going to raise such an idiot."

It was decided to cancel the attempt.

About the life of Kurt Rambis

“While his teammates were living life to the fullest, Kurt Rambis, a rookie and street ragamuffin, was living, ahem, a life. Or, to be more precise, when he was released from work at the Forum (sitting on the bench and dreaming of playing minutes during garbage time), Rambis did not leave in a Mercedes or Bentley, not in a BMW or Jaguar. . Hell, not even on a '65 Opel.

“Kurt didn't have a car – I took him everywhere,” says his friend Rich Brown. He called me when he needed a ride. Sometimes I gave him my car. Not often, but sometimes. And he slept on a mattress - on the floor of my living room.

No joke, Rambis spent all of 1982 at Brown's house in Huntington Beach, on an old mattress. It was strange, as he himself admits, but not as strange as he himself.

Rumbis quickly established himself as one of the NBA's most eccentric personalities after ripping through and scratching a spot on the Lakers roster. “Kurt Rambis is to the weirdo world what Magic Johnson is to the basketball world,” Michael Cooper explained.

Again, this is not an attempt to offend anyone. Just a fact. Rambis refused to move out of the Browns' house because the living room floor suited him. And who needs a bed?

Rambis had one suit (the shitty color he used to wear to prom) and two shirts (because shirts are ugly and very unpleasant to wear). “He wouldn’t have any shirts,” says Brown, “except Becky’s mom bought Kurt and his brother Randy the same blue shirts. It didn't fit Randy, so Kurt ended up with two."

When the players left the Forum after the matches, they also took bags with them - usually light, with a pair of socks, a T-shirt, shorts.

“But not Kurt,” Brown recalls. “Oh no.”

The trunk of Rambis weighed 15-20 kilograms: he put everything that was left in the command pantry into it. Soda cans. Bottles with beer. Soap bars. Cotton buds. Laces. Hall & Oates Recordings…

“Kurt was freaking weird – crazy,” says Frank Brickowski. How much does a pack of soda cost? Two fifty. He showed me the pantry in his house, filled to the brim with soda, which he brought from the arena. Hell, he probably didn't even drink it."

About Magic Johnson vs. Norm Nixon

According to Stinger of the Orange County Register, Nixon "owned the greatest streak in the history of the sport - for two years he always had a woman on every outing."

“I knew Norm,” Stringer says. - We were close. One day we arrived in Richfield, Ohio. This is a complete hole, but we had to stop there the day before the match. And here we are sitting in a hotel - there is nowhere to go, in front of a grocery store and a snowstorm. Somewhere three degrees below zero. We are alone in the hotel. There is not anyone. We're playing ping pong and I'm like, "Hey Norm, it looks like your streak is about to end." He's like, "We'll see." AT 9hours, a Jaguar drives up to the hotel, from where a woman in a long fur coat comes out. He approaches us. And Norm tells her, “Go upstairs. I play ping pong. I'll be up in 20 minutes." Incredible, just incredible."

But not so surprising.

"In truth, the conflict between Irvin and Norm extended beyond the basketball court," says Cooper, who was close friends with both point guards. – The same was present at the parties. They fucked the same girls. And that was the problem. Dr. Bass was friends with Hugh Hefner, so that door was always open to Magic. And Norm until that time was known as the main bachelor of Los Angeles. All in all, it was weird.

The Lakers were his team before the Magic, but he never won anything. So they fought over basketball, over girls. They didn't fight about it, but I heard them say to each other, "Look, stay away from Peggy" and stuff like that. They were friends, good friends. But then the fight on the court and the fight for women took over. We called ourselves the “Three Musketeers” because we did everything together – and then I started to feel like I was torn between two lovers. ”

…

“It was crazy,” recalls Ron Carter, a quarterback who later worked as Bass' assistant. “It was a playboy team and Magic was in charge. Not just in a team - I have never seen anything like it. He made love to two or three women at the same time. Once I asked him: “When the hell do you sleep? Do you sleep at all?" We arrived at the hotel, and there were already two or three women waiting for him. He fucked them, then pushed them out the door. Later, two or three more girls came to the training. He fucked with them. Then, after the game, a few more came up. Irwin did not drink, did not smoke, did not use drugs. Women were his weakness.

“I used to hang out with Magic and there were always 30-40 girls around him,” says Landsberger. - It is impossible to resist - you go to the club, and there dozens of women hang on you. What will you do? Will you say no?

…

“The Johnson Mansion was in no way inferior to the Jerry Bass Mansion. While Magic didn't host as many parties, it was hard to compare his hangouts to anything else. There was nothing more attractive than to receive an invitation there. Access has always been open to Lakers players and opposing players, but the women had to meet a variety of criteria. First, they must be chic. Secondly, they must be frankly dressed. Thirdly, they were ready to do ... different things.

Johnson saw himself not just as a master, but as a steward.

"You'd like heaven to be a little like a party at the Johnson mansion," said Frank Brickowski. - The most beautiful girls in Los Angeles gathered there. Most beautiful. By midnight you had to make love to someone or get out. So, if you were a guy, then you got up closer to the most incredible beauty. Magic was pacing around checking on the fun and telling people not to waste time. All it took was to be next to the girl. The guys would start screaming, “Magic, Magic, she misses you!” He immediately ran up, and it all started. Celebrities have a dizzying impact in Los Angeles. Girls flock to them like moths to a flame. It is sad. But when you're young, fame attracts.

Sexual victories didn't stem from the mere fact that you played for the Lakers. But Johnson was not just one of the most desirable bachelors in Los Angeles, he was the most desirable bachelor in California.

Once he wrote about his meetings: “Some were secretaries. Some are lawyers. There were actresses and models. As well as teachers, editors, accountants or business women. There were also just adventurers, but not so many. Most of these women graduated from universities and had jobs. Some of them did not hide what they were doing, others preferred to keep it a secret. Someone bragged about what other players they slept with. For others, it was part of their second, mysterious life.

Most of them were around 25 years old. Here and there you could meet teenagers, but if you were smart enough, you stayed away from them. These girls were too young – not legally, but emotionally.”

Norm Nixon was followed by a private detective hired by the club

Norm Nixon, who helped the Lakers win the championship in 1980 and 1982, had only one problem - his character. He envied Magic. He was not satisfied with the role of the third violin. And he was annoyed by Jerry West.

By the way, these feelings were mutual. West, who loved the Lakers more than his life, considered Nixon an inappropriate character for the team. Inflated egos, quarrelsomeness, stubbornness, fame as a partygoer and insatiable sexual pleasures, according to the legend of the Lakers, had a bad effect on team chemistry. Rumors that Nixon used cocaine frequently began to circulate during the 1982-83 season as the final straw.

Cocaine was to the NBA of that era what Gatorade is to the current league. West heard rumors that other members of the team were also dabbling in white powder (which was true of Michael Cooper and a couple of other not-so-recent players). After all, only a couple of years ago, the Lakers had to remove the once-star Spencer Haywood, who became addicted to cocaine, from the roster. However, it was in the case of Nixon that West, who had a grudge against him, decided to act.

Being the epitome of pragmatism and paranoia, Jerry hired a private detective to follow Norm's car throughout the second half of the season, monitor his home, and send his employer a daily report on the actions of the Lakers shooting guard. In early spring, one of the neighborhood boys approached Nixon and said,

"Hey Norm, looks like someone in our neighborhood is about to get robbed."

"Where did you get that from?" he was surprised.

“At each of the two ends of our street, there is one car parked with guys with binoculars. They are looking for something in the houses. Someone will be robbed soon."

A couple of days later, when Norm arrived home after the match, a stranger approached him from the darkness.

"Hey man, I need to talk to you about something."

"What happened?" asked Norm, who immediately thought of the robbery.

“I've been following you for two weeks now,” the stranger replied, and then spent twenty minutes describing to the shocked player his every move over the past few days. “If you don't believe me, take a look at the identical cars parked at each end of this street. It's just my job, but I like you, and I thought I should bring you up to date. Goodbye".

The next morning, on his way to the Forum, Norm noticed a black car following him from home. He didn't need any more proof. Arriving at the arena, he first went to the office of Jerry West, where there was a serious quarrel between them. Upon learning of these events, the rest of the Lakers were shocked. Nearly every one of them had an affair they would rather not talk about, whether it was drug use or cheating on their spouse.

Particularly angry was Ron Carter, the Lakers' backup point guard and an old friend of Nixon's. “I spent time with Norm all the time and I can assure you he didn't use drugs. Yes, cocaine was everywhere - this is Los Angeles 1980s! However, you can not indulge in cocaine and play at the highest level. This is what killed Haywood. Norm taught me how to handle those temptations. We were at a club once with Phyllis Hyman. She took out a bag of cocaine and started using it in front of us. Seeing this, Norm immediately pulled me out of the room and said, "Ron, we can't be seen with people who love this thing."

Norm Nixon's days in a Lakers jersey were coming to an end.

About the appearance of Pat Riley

Los Angeles won 11 wins in 13 opening games since the departure of Paul Westhead. New coach Pat Riley was instantly hailed as the Savior by the public and media, believing him to be a true offensive guru, perfect for the Lakers' all-star line-up.

However, Riley's true accomplishments are two simple but wise decisions.

Firstly, the refusal to reinvent the wheel and an attempt to return to the patterns of Jack McKinney, discarding the too sophisticated system of his predecessor.

Second, trust the genius and talent of Magic Johnson. He met with the team leader the day after his official appointment and stated that the Lakers would start running again. He told the Magic that he wanted to see his intuition and fast break ability in action again, and that Johnson would be joining Kareem as the team's main offensive option. Simply put, Riley let Showtime take care of itself.

During the first months in his new position, Riley refused to respond to the word "head coach". For him, these were not just words or the title of a position - it was an honor. He sincerely considered himself a simple guy who was entrusted with helping to bring the ship to shore. However, he was not to borrow wisdom.

“Too many coaches find it necessary to use their own system, whether or not it suits the players they have. However, Pat was smart. He understood that he had inherited a championship team. He understood that championship teams can take care of themselves - they don't need to be forced to work, they don't need to be asked to take matches seriously. You just need to let them play and make cosmetic changes. It is by no means as simple as it seems,” says Norm Nixon.

However, don't think that Pat Riley just stood by and let the team do as they pleased. When necessary, the New Yorker knew how to strike the table with his fist. On March 12, 1982, the Lakers lost to the Bulls underdogs 105-111. After the match, Pat went into the dressing room, locked the door, took the match statistics in his hands, and lashed out at his players.

“I can understand how Reggie Theus scores 13 points. Artis Gilmour is certainly capable of 25 points. But why the hell is Ronnie Lester - Ronnie fucking Lester - hitting seven out of twelve shots? You call this a game of defense, your mother?!

The next day, during practice, Pat lined up his team and talked to each of the players in the most frank terms.

“It was like the coming of Christ. He openly told each player what he likes and what he doesn't. He made the role of every guy on the team very clear. If anyone had doubts about who was in charge of the team, or thoughts that Riley was just a former commentator and assistant to Paul Westhead, then Pat put everything in its place, ”recalled one of the players of that squad.

The Lakers appreciated Riley's frankness and directness. Having played three seasons at the senior level and nine years in the NBA, Pat understood the difficulties his guys faced. He knew what it was like to play the third match in four days, get hit by the press, miss the decisive free kick, be booed by his own fans. And, despite his youth, he had real life wisdom, perfectly understanding hundreds of small moments outside the parquet that affect the game of professional athletes. He did not hesitate to take the fire of criticism on himself, telling reporters that "everything is always blamed on the players, however, I often become the cause of defeats."

What happened to Robert Parish's wife

After the Boston game, Lakers press officer Josh Rosenfeld brought Abdul-Jabbar to the court from the locker room. As they waited, the fans began teasing the center with shouts of “Lew! Lew." "It always pissed him off, he just hated being called by his former name." Rambis immediately gave Rosenfeld a wet towel, and he took it and threw it at the fans. “It's just emotions. I didn't target anyone in particular."

When Rosenfeld returned to the dressing room, he received congratulations from Johnson, Cooper and Worthy.

“Great! Cooper greeted him. “You helped the team in the playoffs.”

"What have I done?"

“When you threw the towel, you hit Robert Parish's wife in the face. IM L Carr was there, he's angry. Well thought out, man. Brilliant."

The Celtics got really angry. As did Riley, who hated when any off-court action interfered with his game plans.

Rosenfeld quickly wrote a letter of apology and wanted to give it to the Boston center. But then I decided to approach him personally before the 3rd match.

"Robert, do you have a minute?"

Due to the fact that there were cameras around, they went into a room under the stands and remained alone.

“Look, Robert. I wrote you this letter. I sincerely would like to apologize to you. I didn't know it was your wife. And such an act is completely uncharacteristic for me. ”

For another three or four minutes he mumbled something about how terrible he felt, how he wanted to apologize to Nancy personally, how it was the worst moment of his life. His voice trembled. Hands were shaking. Parish, who got his nickname "Chief" after the silent Indian from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, remained silent.

"Are you angry with me?"

Parish, who had not uttered a word before, smiled:

“Not at all. I've been asking that bitch to shut her mouth for ten years now, and you're the first person to do it."

They shook hands.”

How Wes Matthews harnessed the X-Man

“In the middle of the third quarter, Matthews was met with a tough Xavier McDaniel. In Seattle's next possession, Matthews took the ball from Nate McMillan and hit him in the leg. When he dived for the outgoing ball, he deliberately kicked McDaniel in the face. He instantly overwhelmed him and put his powerful hands to his neck.

"I immediately decided that I would not tolerate any nonsense from this husk," McDaniel explained.

Cooper separated them, but the main thing was just getting started. After the match, Riley paid tribute to Matthews' character. His team didn't play hard enough (and lost), but the diminutive defender was worthy of praise. After this incident, the Lakers gave a breakthrough 22:4. When Riley was asked about the brawl, he succinctly said, "Should have started it early."

When the journalists approached Matthews after the game, they naturally thought that everything was over. Matthews was a pleasant, chatty guy who enjoyed signing autographs and talking to young fans. He had a charming smile and everyone on the team loved him. Someone asked him if he was still upset about the collision:

“I have nothing to say…”

Well, okay then…

“Except that he is ###### #######. And when he comes to L.A., I'll take him seriously."

Oh, Wes, this guy is half a foot taller than you. And 15 kilograms heavier.

“He should have been removed for grabbing my neck. I can't wait to have the opportunity to go against him again. His bald head will be mine."

NBA commissioner David Stern studied the records and decided that no one should be fined. He believed that this would not happen again. But he didn't know Wes Matthews.

A week after that game, the Sonics came to New York to play the Knicks. As Matthews later admitted, two of his friends came to the Garden specifically to “chat” with McDaniel. They met with him in the premises under the stands and said that if he played, he would receive either at the arena itself or later at the hotel.

"They called me later," Matthews said, "and said, 'Dude, you don't have to worry about X-Man anymore.'

"What did you do?"

“Don't worry. Today, X won't play at all."

A few days later, Matthews was contacted by the NBA office.

“I was fined $10,000 for threatening another player. I told them: “What are you talking about? I'm in Los Angeles. I'm not threatening anyone. " But they didn't believe me."

Which of these is true? It is hard to say. McDaniel never mentioned the incident. He missed only four games that season, one of which was against the Knicks.

About how Vlade Divac shocked everyone with his love of cigarettes

“We flew somewhere during training camp,” center McNamara recalled. - I was dozing, and then Bill Bertka yelled: “Wake up! Wake up! I woke up - I smell cigarettes. It was Vlade who smoked in the toilet. Criminal offense. Everyone laughed."

“As a doctor, I was shocked that he was smoking,” said Gary Witty. I told him how stupid he is. Once we received a bill for smoking in a hotel room. I yelled at him: "Vlade, $250 for smoking in the room!" He told me that it was all my fault.

"Is that why I'm to blame?"

“How why?! You put me in a non-smoking room.”

How Pat Riley turned into a tyrannical tyrant

“You know when I found out about the influence of Magic and that he is much more important than Kareem? Frank Brickowski said. “We had a practice session before the pre-season game against the Bulls. Pat gathered everyone and says: “We will do this and that and finish in 2 hours and 15 minutes.” And Magic is like, "OK, after 1 and 15 minutes, that's good." And Pat: “No… no… 2 hours and 15 minutes. And Magic says: No, no, no, I thought you said that because we played two matches in a row and were tired, everything would be over in 1 and 15 minutes.

There is a 3-second pause and Pat says, "Let's get it right again - an hour and 15 minutes." Magic smiled, "That's what I thought you said."

…

Before the start of each season, Riley required every player to participate in a body fat percentage measurement and a stress test – running on a treadmill with electrodes attached to the body.

“At times like this, you felt like you were about to die,” one of the players said. “Your lungs were ready to explode, you were drenched in sweat. Riley wanted to see what you're made of."

Those Lakers were always known for hard training, but Riley took them to the next level.

“I've never seen anything like it,” says Jeff Lamp. - I studied in Louisville, where basketball is everything, where you play from morning to night. But the Lakers… Pat was so demanding. Either you have to do everything right, or you can not do it at all. And this highest level was supported by Magik. Running, exercises - everything you did, you did in order to win. I played for the reserves in training. Elsewhere, it's normal for the second team to beat the first. After all, we are all NBA players. But that has never happened to the Lakers. The team had a backbone that just refused to lose."

…

“In '89, Riley appeared on the cover of the January GQ: the accompanying article said a lot. If Riley didn't say how big he was, he would say how big he was, or, on occasion, he would throw in a few words about how great he was. He said that he felt disrespected during the negotiations for a new contract and threatened to resign. He said that he was disappointed that not once in these seven years he was not chosen as coach of the year. He once complained to Gary Witty during a winning streak that he was given chalk that was "difficult" to write (Witty asked, "What the hell are you talking about, Pat?"). Before training camp in Hawaii, he demanded that the temples be painted bright orange and that the bolts on the backboards be replaced.

Riley would have thought this remark would have been humiliating. It was an example of demonstrative narcissism from a coach who always upheld the values ​​of team basketball. If the player positioned himself in this way, then he himself would either laugh at him, or apply sanctions to him (most often, both). But Riley, as it seemed to the players, began to believe that it was he who invented basketball.

"Things were getting a little tense," Cooper explained.

…

The Lakers celebrated their eighth Finals run in 10 years. It was expected that an easy victory would give them the opportunity to relax and enjoy the moment. In the East, the Pistons and Celtics stretched the streak to 6 games and gave the Lakers 9 days to prepare.

Riley wasn't going to rest. After all, he had an ego, now expanded to the size of the state he worked for.

“Our players will regret that this streak didn't last longer. It's going to be a very tough week for them."

On May 31, 1989, the Lakers arrived in Santa Barbara and spent the next three days at Westmount College Gym (the deepest basketball hell).

…

Tired but prepared, the Lakers traveled from Santa Barbara to Detroit and held a closed practice in Auburn Hills. Usually teams use it as an opportunity to get used to the arena, get used to it, relax. But Riley didn't want to hear anything like that. As before, he demanded that the players give 100%. No concessions - until there is a third title. That is why the team began to work out the exercise with the fight for the rebound.

“I understand that Pat set the tone for training,” Vitti said. – But even theoretically, if you don’t know how to fight for rebounding and you don’t have the psychological readiness for such a fight, then one day before the final series, you won’t develop it all. So the team does this exercise, which certainly doesn't seem like a genius now...

AND BAM!

Byron Scott falls to the floor and tears his hamstring. It took Vitti half a minute to realize that he would miss at least two matches. "It was terrible. For the team, for Byron."

…

Gradually, it turned out that every morning after the defeats, club employees came to work and saw Riley there. Unshaven, haggard, not at all like the dandy seen on matchdays. He demanded a million different things from them. Changed all plans at the last moment and lost patience if they could not do anything. Abdul-Jabbar, who hated Riley so much that they barely interacted, gave him the nickname Norman Bates, after the hero "Psycho".

…

On June 11, 1990, in the midst of general chaos, Pat Riley was fired. Not exactly fired, sort of fired, sort of replaced, sort of…well, he was leaving.

“Man's greatest fear is the fear of death,” he said at a press conference.

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