'Winning Time' Episode 3: Why did UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian not coach the Lakers?
It's a known fact that UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian was one of the candidates that Dr Jerry Buss looked at to coach the Los Angeles Lakers after Jerry West handed his resignation. 'Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty' Episode 3 sheds light on the aftermath of West's resignation and ends with Tarkanian tipping to take the role. However, we do know how it turns out in reality. The HBO sports drama also gives Adrien Brody's Pat Riley ample screentime prepping him for a role in the days to come.
Tarkanian and his close friend, Vic Weiss (who negotiated on his behalf) with Buss were one of the storylines of the episode. And just when Buss thought 750 million and two Rolls Royces would have reeled in Tarkanian, the murder of Weiss changed it all, and the Lakers were back to a square one without a coach with the training camp looming large.
RELATED ARTICLES
'Winning Time': When Magic Johnson's HIV diagnosis and retirement shocked the world
HBO 'Winning Time' Episode 2: Fans shocked by Jerry West sex scene, say 'he's a wild boy'
How did Vic Weiss die?
Jeff Pearlman in his book, 'Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s' narrates the timeline leading to Weiss' death. It was June 15, the day after the duo met Buss and Tarkanian received a phone call from Rose Weiss, Vic's wife for nearly two decades. She was asking if the coach had seen Weiss and that he hadn't come home the night before. The alarm bells began clanging when his absence went beyond two days. Finally, his body was found in the trunk of his car in the parking lot of a hotel in North Hollywood, California. He had taken a bullet to the head and was found limp and dead.
According to Pearlman, Weiss has a certain "slipperiness'. He also added that "it was far from unusual to see Weiss standing ringside, talking shop with known mobsters." Although it was believed that Weiss was actually owning a couple of car dealerships, truth was that he was only a paid consultant and also had burgeoning debts due to gambling. To make up for the money, he was moving laundered money from California to Vegas. According to one of his colleagues, he was skimming off some of the money and when he didn't stop despite the warnings, he was killed.
Why did Jerry Tarkanian decline to coach the Los Angeles Lakers?
Following the death of Weiss, Tarkanian was a torn man and despite Buss's sincere attempts that also saw him tell the man to take as much time as he needs, the UNLV superstar coach just couldn't bring himself to coach the Lakers. Pearlman wrote that Vegas was reaching out to the man imploring him to stay. "Please don't leave. We need you. You need us. You are Las Vegas," the author wrote in his book. His wife, Lois, was quoted saying, "I don't think he ever got past Vic's death. He just didn't get past it." While this was a hammer blow to Buss, the owner of the franchise never reportedly held a grudge. "I understand," he remarked. "Some things aren't just meant to be."
'Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty' airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on HBO.
