The Winning Time is based on the story of the Lakers and their rise; Credits: HBO 

Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty has been creating magic on the screens for a while now. The show does great work with Jason Segel, along with Earvin "Magic" Johnson, played by Quincy Isaiah, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, played by Solomon Hughes. 

Then there is also the basketball shop owner Jerry Buss, played by John C. Reilly, who is practically in charge of the Inglewood Forum team and has been leading the team to wins since the 1980s. 

Not to mention, head coach Jack McKinney, played by Tracy Letts, is presently out of the game as he was injured after a bicycle accident. The coach is in a coma, leaving behind his team to fend off themselves. 

With the head coach gone, Paul Westhead, the assistant coach played by Jason Segel, has to take over the reins of the team. He has been trying his best to bring the organization back to its full glory and has been earning himself fame since then. 

Before his chief role as the acting coach of The Lakers, Westhead was an English professor. He had joined the team as the friend and consultant of McKinney but had never originally desired to leave his Shakespearean days behind. 

Since he has been trying his best to carry forward McKinny's dream and wants the team to win the game. But given that he is an English enthusiast, his speeches have a tendency to turn to Macbeth once he speaks for a little while. He is quick to relate the hurt of losing a match to the grief of the mad king. 

Segel himself revealed that he could relate to Westhead and his love of Shakespearean tragedy quotes. He admitted that he too has the habit of adding drama into his sentences once he begins expressing his ideas. 

Sharing his own personal experiences, Segel retold a funny story when he tried explaining to someone to not look at a pot when it's heating, or the pot won't reach the desired temperature. Hilariously enough, he exaggerated the point for up to seven minutes. The listener agreed with him at last while Segel spent a great while explaining his idea. 

But apart from his speech-giving tendencies, Segel has proved himself as an actor for the better part of two decades and is also a phenomenal performer, writer, and orator at the side. Additionally, fitting in right with the theme of The Lakers, Segel was also a basketball player, before he got into big shows like "How I Met Your Mother" and "Freak and Geeks."

He played the game in his high school days and was a good sport. But then he chose to go ahead with acting instead of the game and now is one of the best industry leaders in Hollywood. 

Talking with Variety, Segel shared that he, himself, is a "huge" fan of the Lakers and is devoted to the NBA team. Considering the team had to go through a lot this year, Segel didn't enjoy that as a fan. 

The team was just eliminated from the playoff contention about a week ago and Segel compared the tragedy to that of a Shakespearean drama. The team saw a lot of shifts in the way it operates this year and basketball has never been the same for them. 

Segel revealed that in his game days, he managed to win some state championships and played against Solomon Hughes, who acted in the series too, back in their high school days. To see it all at a glance now, it really makes sense that the world is round considering that the two basketball players dribbled the ball and now came together to star in the same series about basketball. 

Segel shared that back in the time, he thought a lot about basketball and it brought him closer to his brother. They would play the game on the weekends or play across the streets and come closer together as siblings. 

Just in his endearing way to be closer to his brother, they played basketball a lot and Segel ended up becoming a great player. He would use any free time to dribble the ball around and all of that hard work later paid off as he played in championships. 

Yet, he was discovered by a casting director when in high school and he ended up choosing acting over basketball. He had to put all his efforts into acting alone and became a devoted performer. His efforts now brought him to a point where he could combine his love for the sport and acting into a single show. 

Explaining how he came to star in Winning Time, Jason Segel shared that he was sent the script for the pilot episode and the first six scripts after that. The creators made sure that Segel received the scripts to see how Paul Westhead would come into play in the story and how he could impact the show. 

He was hooked on the show right from reading the pilot and decided that he wanted to see how the show would turn up. The story then went on to use a Shakespearean plot to mold out for Westhead, a professor in the subject, and it was decided that he would get the part. 

Segel shared that the part called out to him and he grabbed the opportunity. 

He went ahead and did his research on the book Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s. Westhead too has a book about the Lakers legacy. The real-life and fictional assistant coach also shared a small conversation on the internet and that helped Segel understand that he wanted to convey his own tribute to the legendary NBA team. 

Hence, he stopped worrying about what could be and went on to believe in the creators of the show and dived headfirst into his role.