“No f***ing way can a Lakers show end in 1984,” Jeff Pearlman, the author of the book HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty is based on, posted on Twitter in August in a bid to save the show by attracting more viewers. But it did end there, thanks to HBO executives, who were also responsible for the show’s clunky name. Pearlman’s book, like the 1980s Lakers themselves, was called Showtime, but the big brains at Home Box Office could not bring themselves to name the series after their premium television network rival, Showtime. For Lakers fans watching Winning Time, the villains of the show will be those HBO executives. By canceling the show at the end of its second season, those executives have created the best show about the Lakers losing ever made.

Here I have to declare an interest: I’m a Bostonian, so ending this show with the Celtics’ 1984 NBA Championship is about the funniest way possible for me to imagine the end of a show dedicated to Magic Johnson’s “Showtime” Lakers, who went on to recover from that loss to win two championships against Larry Bird’s Celtics.