The real people at the heart of HBO's 'Winning Time' are slamming the series as inaccurate, from Magic Johnson to LA Lakers coach Jerry West

• HBO's "Winning Time" follows the rise of the LA Lakers Basketball team during the 1980s.
• However, many of the real people the show portrays have criticized the accuracy of the series.

Former Los Angeles Lakers players and executives have publicly criticized the accuracy of the HBO series "Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty."

The new series, which premiered last month, follows the rise of the LA Lakers basketball team in the late 1970s and is based on a biographical novel "Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s" by Jeff Pearlman.

However, Jerry West, who was a coach of the Lakers during the '70s, has demanded an apology and a retraction within two weeks from Tuesday for the "baseless" depiction of the former executive in the series, according to a letter from his lawyers obtained by ESPN.

In the letter that was sent on Tuesday to HBO and producer Adam McKay, the former coach's attorney Skip Miller writes: "The portrayal of NBA icon and L.A. Lakers legend Jerry West in 'Winning Time' is fiction pretending to be fact — a deliberately false characterization that has caused great distress to Jerry and his family."

Insider has reached out to HBO for comment.

West is one of many to speak out against the series.

Magic Johnson told Variety that he has refused to watch the series

The story of "Winning Time" begins in 1979 when basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson joins the Lakers squad. However, Johnson told Variety that he refused to watch the series after neither HBO nor the creative executives asked for him or his teammates to participate.

"First of all, you can't do a story about the Lakers without the Lakers," Johnson told the outlet. "The real Lakers. You gotta have the guys. There's no way to duplicate Showtime. I don't care who you get."

Quincy Isaiah, who plays Johnson in the series, told TMZ that there was "no malice" behind the show after hearing the criticism from Johnson and other Lakers players.

"I mean, I understand where they coming from because it's a story about their life," Isaiah said. "So, it's tough. But I really feel like we did a really good job of showing humans and showing a full version of who we at least perceive them to be."

Former Lakers coach Jerry West has asked for an apology, arguing the show depicts him as an 'out-of-control, intoxicated rage-aholic,' according to a letter from his lawyers

According to ESPN, West's lawyers argued in a letter to HBO that the show "falsely and cruelly portrays Mr. West as an out-of-control, intoxicated rage-aholic" that "bears no resemblance to the real man," adding that HBO's disclaimer that the series was a dramatization does not remove the network from liability.

Their letter also states that the show "goes out of its way to denigrate Jerry West" such as implying that West tried to "sabotage" Magic Johnson's selection to the team in 1979.

During the scene in episode one, West, portrayed by Jason Clarke, comes up with excuses for why Johnson should not be selected for the Lakers team before breaking a golf club in anger.

West's lawyers say that the series' creators, Max Borenstein and Jim Hecht, acted with "legal malice" because this rage-filled rant and others depicted in the show did not happen in Pearlman's "Showtime" novel nor in real life.

Statements from former Lakers players and employees such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Claire Rothman included in the letter also deny that such episodes occurred in real life.

Former Lakers player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar called the series 'deliberately dishonest'

Both Abdul-Jabbar and Rothman have previously criticized the show's accuracy.

On Tuesday, Abdul-Jabbar published a blog stating that the series is "deliberately dishonest" and "drearily dull." The former Lakers player wrote that the show had "bland characterization" and changed "solid facts" with "flimsy cardboard fictions" that affected the legacy of those still alive.

"It's a shame the way they treat Jerry West, who has openly discussed his struggle with mental health, especially depression," Abdul-Jabbar wrote. "Instead of exploring his issues with compassion as a way to better understand the man, they turn him into a Wile E. Coyote cartoon to be laughed at."

He added that another scene in the show's first episode where Lakers player Norm Nixon and Johnson have a one-on-one basketball match at a party also didn't happen, which Nixon also said didn't occur during an interview on the "Cedric Maxwell Podcast" earlier this month.

Before the series had come out, Rothman, who was the general manager and president of The Forum arena where the Lakers played at the time, told Goldstein and Gasol, a Lakers fan website, that she declined to be involved with the show because it wasn't approved by Jeanie Buss, president of the Lakers.

Rothman also said she didn't like the way it presented her and Jerry Buss, the owner of the Lakers in the '70s and Jeanie's father.

"The thing that stuck out was that it said when I went to meet Jerry, I unbuttoned my blouse by three buttons," Rothman said. "Now that's bullshit. I had a long-term association as an arena manager. So I wouldn't have cooperated in any case."

"Winning Time" is available on HBO Max.