On the heels of Winning Time and the Magic Johnson docuseries, another project at Hulu from Jeanie Buss is investigating how the Los Angeles Lakers to thank for today’s sports culture.
After the team was purchased by Dr. Jerry Buss in 1979, a dynasty that bridged both sports and entertainment was birthed. Today, the Buss and Lakers legacies continue, thanks to his children and the individuals who were pivotal in helping to build one of the most dynamic and iconic sports franchises in America.
Hulu’s Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers captures both the rise and the success of the barrier-shifting NBA franchise through the eyes of the players, executives, and everyone who played a role in its rise.
Ahead of the premiere of the 10-part docuseries, Shadow and Act spoke with Jerry’s daughter Jeanie, the current Lakers president and representative of the team on the NBA Board of Governors, as well as director Antione Fuqua, and the pair opened up about diving into the team’s legacy through the project.
"Dr. Buss was an amazing person, he was just an amazing, magical individual," said Fuqua.
“He’s the American dream, you know, and he didn’t come from money. The way he treated his players, as family, each player tells their story about him and those individual moments they had with him,” he continued. “So Dr. Buss is inspiring, my own life in so many ways. The good, bad and ugly. He was a human being, but he loved his family. And he achieved greatness and left an amazing legacy.”
As a team that has essentially never shied away from the spotlight, the Lakers have been the topic of conversation for decades. Jeanie explains why it was important for the story of the team to be told through firsthand accounts of people who experienced the moments in real-time.
“This team has been covered in the media, the wins and losses, the results on the court, but really, the people who lived it and what was going on behind the scenes, the things, the stories that people might not have ever heard before,” said Buss.
"It was important to capture those voices and let them tell their truth," Jeanie said.
“We interviewed over 75 people, everybody that we approached, agreed to be interviewed,” she continued. “So it’s a real deep dive into what was going on behind the scenes during all of the winning, and sometimes not winning.”
The first two episodes of Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers are now available for streaming on Hulu with the third expected to drop on Monday, Aug. 22.
