Roy Wood Jr. is a comedian, actor, producer, and writer that has been a correspondent on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" since 2015. Wood Jr. is the son of Roy Wood Sr., who was a civil rights journalist, commentator, activist, and college professor.
Wood Jr. is working on a new stand-up special with fatherhood as one of the main storylines now that he is a dad himself. He is also in the upcoming "Confess, Fletch" reboot of the original "Fletch" from 1985 starring Chevy Chase.
Wood Jr. joined Kenny Mayne on Audacy's "Hey Mayne" podcast and discussed a variety of topics, including his father, race in America, and he even gave his thoughts on HBO's "Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty" series.
"I enjoyed the show. I know a lot of Lakers are mad. That's why I know a lot of it's true," Wood Jr. said (46:20 in player above). "It's not a coincidence that 'Winning Time' came out and then Magic Johnson had his four-episode 'Last Dance'-esque project that came out. And I believe there's a separate Lakers doc that's either come out or about to come out. So it's like 'Naw, naw, naw. Let me tell you my version.' It's like 'OK, well then there's probably a little merit to that.'"
The TV series chronicles the 1980s "Showtime" era of the Lakers, featuring stars like Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. "Winning Time" has drawn some criticism from Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar themselves because of inaccuracies. Abdul-Jabbar went as far as to say the series is deliberately dishonest.
Jerry West, who recently revealed why he would've left the Lakers if free agency existed when he played, has demanded a retraction of his "cruel" portrayal in the series, which HBO has emphasized is a drama, not a documentary.
"I just find it interesting with 'Winning Time' that it's based on a book," Wood Jr. continued. "Y'all already told this to an author, so why aren't you mad at the book?"
The show is in fact based on a book, "Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s" by Jeff Pearlman, and HBO has maintained that the series and its depictions are based on factual research and reliable sourcing.
HBO's "Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty" is in production on Season 2, and so is the "Hey Mayne" podcast! Production for Season 2 of "Hey Mayne" is underway with some can't-miss guests on the docket.
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