Winning Time Super Bowl Trailer: A Legendary Basketball Story, Advertised During A Football Game

While I may have been an honors student back in high school, I was lucky that gym class was more of a pass/fail scenario. If it wasn't, there was a good chance that I might not have passed. However, I do know that the Super Bowl is a showcase for the NFL's best football teams of the year. That's why it was so unusual to see a basketball bounce across our screens during Super Bowl LVI. But since the annual event is being held at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California this year, it's not surprising that the Los Angeles Lakers had to make an appearance somewhere.

I know what that sounds like, but no, the current lineup of the Lakers didn't rush the field and make a run in during the Rams' moment in the sun against the Cincinnati Bengals. Instead, a new trailer for the upcoming HBO series "Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty" premiered during the big game along with this year's crop of commercials.

Fresh off the success of his latest film "Don't Look Down," which collected four Oscar nominations this year and is touted as one of the most watched movies on Netflix ever, Adam McKay's next project is almost ready to hit the hardwood. "Winning Time" tells the story of the team that revolutionized the sport of basketball as we know it today by chronicling the rise of the legendary "Showtime" LA Lakers from the 1980s. Not only did they win five NBA championships between 1979 to 1991, this era led by Magic Johnson's passing and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's scoring featured a new focus on entertainment during games. Dancers and live music were incorporated into home games at The Forum to make it feel more like a nightclub thanks to franchise owner Jerry Buss. And now, John C. Reilly steps into Buss' shoes for the 10-episode limited series.

The 30-second Big Game spot for the upcoming HBO show starts with Reilly as Buss declaring that there's two things that make him believe in God: Sex and basketball. From there, we get a look at the original Laker Girls, the club that inspired Buss to make the changes that he made, and newcomers Quincy Isaiah and Dr. Solomon Hughes as Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar respectively. It's short, sweet, and to the point. And though we mostly see the key players in these 30 seconds, it does leave out a good portion of the all-star cast surrounding these all-star players, which includes Sally Field, Gaby Hoffman, Tracy Letts, Julianne Nicholson, Gillian Jacobs, Molly Gordon, Michael Chiklis, Rob Morgan, Danny Burstein, and Sean Patrick Small. But I guess you just have to save some things for game time. Or the full length trailer.

"Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty" starring John C. Reilly, Quincy Isaiah, Dr. Solomon Hughes, Jason Clarke, Jason Segel, and Adrien Brody premieres on Sunday, March 6, 2022 on HBO and HBO Max.