Jerry West's lawyer has written a letter to HBO demanding a retraction for the false portrayal of the Laker in the Winning Time series; Credits: Variety

Winning Time is the latest show by HBO that has taken the world by storm. Depicting the struggles and the rise to fame of the spectacular Los Angeles Lakers. Though Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty has become a favorite amongst the fans, Jerry West has alleged that his portrayal in the series is "baseless" and is a "deliberately false characterization."

The celebrity shared a letter with the executive producer Adam McKay and also with Warner Bros.-Discovery, the parent company of HBO. The letter by Jerry West's attorney claims that the damaging portrayal of West in the series has been the cause of "great distress" to the famous personality along with his family. 

The letter has been issued to demand a legal retraction. HBO is now asked to compensate West for their purposeful oversight within the coming two weeks. 

While Jerry West is obviously not very thrilled with the show, the public response has helped HBO renew the show for a second season. Winning Time focuses on the initial days of the Lakers Showtime era in the 1980s when the Los Angeles team had just made a big name. 

Players like Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were the forerunners of the team's success. The team was also led to excellence by the help of Jerry Buss and Pat Riley, the driving forces behind the hit basketball organization. 

The series employs Jason Clarke for the role of Jerry West. The real-life character is shown to be desolate, angry, and irritated with his declining career and as a lousy loser following his many losses in the NBA finals. 

West uses strong emotion when condescending Lakers for the unwarranted drama used in the series. His letter revealed his angst on the part as he says that the series made the most glorious and successful days of the Lakers into the stuff of a soap opera. 

He also accused the HBO series of depicting people in a "false light" for earning views, and ratings and making more money. 

The letter is accompanied by various testimonies of the people who worked with Jerry West at the time as proof to solidify that West's portrayal in the series is actually entirely false. The famous names that witnessed for the West include Claire Rothman and Abdul-Jabbar. 

Both Rothman and Abdul-Jabbar also have actors playing them in the series. Claire Rothman is played by Gaby Hoffman and Abdul-Jabbar is played by Solomon Hughes. HBO has yet not revealed its side of the story following Jerry West's allegations. 

However, West is not the first person to take action against the HBO series. Only a few hours earlier to his legal complaint against Winning Time, Abdul-Jabbar shared his own objection to the series. He had also written about the false portrayal of the West and how it really differs from the real-life person in his personal blog. 

He wrote that West was actually made to look like a Wile E. Coyote cartoon, the butt of all jokes, instead of the responsible man the personality was in real life and how he worked hard with compassion to better himself. Despite the issues he faced, he did not actually break a golf club in anger and also did not go as far away as hurling his trophy out a window. 

While all this could be justified on the basis of creating drama in the series, the portrayal is highly damaging to the real person. Such false oddities only work to exploit the famous face they are using as a backup to the character and do not necessarily add to the "exploration of character."

Here is the full statement on the issue by Skip Miller, the lawyer of Jerry West and L.A.’s Miller Barondess, LLP law firm:

“The portrayal of NBA icon and LA 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."

The statement also read that instead of the harrowingly angry figure that Jerry was presented to be in the HBO series, the athlete showed amazing compassion, love, and support for the Lakers and was never against Dr. Jerry Buss. Together, he and the team, propelled the NBA organization to its golden era back in time making it the most epic of all teams in history. 

Given that HBO portrayed the character with such baseless indignity, many peers of the athlete, and other recognizable figures from the era have chosen to stand in solidarity with West and show their support for his cause. Here are all the people who agree with the legal action taken against HBO:

Michael Cooper, was a close associate of Jerry West back in his Lakers days and worked as a Special Assistant to the General Manager. 

Jamaal Wilkes is also a former Laker player and the four-time winner of the NBA championship. 

Frank Mariani, the owner of the Lakers and also the longtime partner in the business of Dr. Buss. 

Abdul-Jabbar, a fellow Lakers player, has also criticized HBO for its rash characterization.