'Winning Time' Recap: Lakers Coaching Search Gets Hairy; Pat Riley Does Demo Work

Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty hit some speed bumps in Episode 3 as the team turned its attention to the coaching search and Magic Johnson made some new friends.

Both the main stories this week involved the coaching search as Dr. Jerry Buss set his sights on UNLV's notorious and legendary coach Jerry Tarkanian. Meanwhile, back at the office Jerry West broke down film trying to find his replacement. West was less than receptive to the top candidates as Jason Clarke delivered what may be the line of the century.

All the while Pat Riley, one of the best coaches in NBA history, played by Adrian Brody, is just wandering the building (when he can actually get in). Watching a young(er) Riley look for something to do was fun, but also lost any potential drama because we know exactly where he will end up. The only real conflict left for Riley is whatever happens to his beautiful, unkempt hair. There had better be a scene where he's introduced to sloppy steaks.

It seems that some guys will literally tear apart their entire garage and try to deepend their voice to impress Chick Hearn instead of go to therapy.

Now let's take a moment to celebrate Rory Cochrane as Jerry Tarkanian. A man who had no time to combover his hair or uncover the air conditioning. I had no idea how close Tark the Shark came to running the Showtime Lakers, but it would have been a heck of an alternate timeline. Talk about spooky stuff.

The combination of the scene where John C. Reilly does his hair and then Tarkanian explains why he shaved his head again put Buss in his place. A recurring theme as he's shown cracking and screaming at West early in the episode and is again vulnerable and broke as his mother explains that even more money is due soon.

The last thing we really need to talk about is Magic Johnson. I saved it for later in the article so that children would have checked out by now. Magic met Zastro, a man who has many friends. With his mother, his church and his Cookie very far away, Magic wastes no time making himself at home at Zastro's where we see one a sex scene compilation that might belong on the Mount Rushmore of HBO's scripted sex scenes. When it comes to teenage characters having sex, it seems that Euphoria walked so Winning Time will be able to run.

There was plenty to get excited about in the episode, but overall, the series might be showing cracks. Kind of like Pat Riley's garage. We might just have to tear the entire thing down, but as long as Gillian Jacobs understands that we just have to get it out of our system, it will all work out in the end. Like if Entourage was based on a true(r) story.

The Big Lead's Kyle Koster and Stephen Douglas broke down all this and more in the latest episode of The Best of Seven Podcast. Listen below and please subscribe. Otherwise we feel like the fictional version of Jerry West.