HBO has a knack for creating buzz worthy TV. And it's not just TV filled with over-the-top twists and turns and thus becomes "water cooler" conversation at work. It's, for the most part, high art that's immensely entertaining. There's no doubt that Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty is their latest hit. The star-studded miniseries is a thrill for sports fans, most of all NBA and Lakers fanatics. Numerous celebrities like Jack Nicholson, who has court-side seats at The Staples Center, count themselves among that massive fanbase. But there are many other reasons why Winning Time is worth watching...
The performances alone are masterful. Acclaimed actors like Adrien Brody take on real-life people like Coach Pat Riley with both style and authenticity. But there's a newbie grabbing everyone's attention... Solomon Hughes, the man blessed with the role of Lakers' icon Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Who Is Solomon Hughes?
Winning Time is Solomon Hughes' acting debut, but certainly not the first time playing ball on screen. The man was a Harlem Globetrotter, after all. Before that, he played basketball in high school and at UC Berkeley, where he got his Master’s Degree. This was followed by earning his Ph.D. at the University of Georgia. After becoming a doctor, Solomon became a visiting instructor at Duke University and a guest lecturer at Stanford. It was this gig that landed him his first ever acting role as the iconic NBA superstar, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
- Solomon Hughes is in his early 40s and stands tall at 6-foot-11.
According to CheatSheet, the casting director of Winning Time had found Solomon through the agent who books him for lectures. She could see that Solomon could command a room and had the height and look to play Kareem. But a dig into his past revealed that he had notable experience with basketball.
During his time on Cal's Golden Bears basketball team (1998 to 2002), started 52 games and won 3 sets of 20 games during his four-year run. He also reached the NCAA tournament twice and won the NIT in 1999. On top of this, Solomon had a brief stint with the Harlem Globetrotters which is what the mainstream knows him best for.
During an interview with Vulture, Solomon said he learned a ton about acting from his Winning Time co-stars. He claimed that all of them were very welcoming of him despite his lack of experience. Solomon even found that his experience in college basketball weren't always helpful while shooting scenes that required his skills.
"When making a TV show, there’s so much you’re trying to capture in a moment," Solomon said to Vulture. "You could shoot a scene for an entire day, but maybe only 15 seconds of it will make it into the episode — and it’s only the 15 seconds that will push the story forward. Also, it’s one thing to make a shot, but it’s another thing to make a shot once the cameras are rolling. There’s the terror of missing a bunch of shots when they’re trying to get a take, but the reality is, you’ve got to keep putting your best foot forward no matter how many misses."
How Could Solomon Hughes Play Kareem Abdul-Jabbar?
Solomon Hughes admitted to Vulture that he grew up idolizing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. But it wasn't just Kareem's skills on the court that inspired Solomon. Kareem's soft-spoken-ness and what he stood for also was of huge importance to him.
"My dad is the same age as Kareem and I would think about what it must have been like to come of age in the civil-rights era," Solomon said to Vulture. "My father talked about how, growing up in the South, your job was to figure out a way to navigate a world where it was very clear that justice was not on your side. I wanted to empathize with Kareem, who is trying to reconcile this crazy world around him, by copying his stillness."
Among the many nuances of accurately representing Kareem on screen was nailing his iconic speaking voice.
"The power move is speaking softly and making others lean into you. I didn’t focus too much on projection. I felt more like, I’m saying what I’m saying, and you need to be listening. There’s a swagger to the way he did things," Solomon explained. "The way he would walk out to tip-off at the start of the game was so zen, so calm, so collected. You can sense the reverence the other players, even the opposing players, had for him when they would shake his hand and dap him up. There was a coolness to him. I am not a particularly cool person so trying to embody that was hard work."
To most sports fans, one of the most iconic details about Kareem was his signature move on the court, the skyhook. Solomon claimed that he watched numerous videos of Kareem pulling off this fantastic move in order to nail it.
"There’s a number of highlight reels that show skyhook after skyhook. One of my problems as a basketball player was I played too fast. When you watch Kareem’s skyhook, he really is in a world of his own. He’s surrounded by defenders, but he’s going to take his time and gracefully try to make that move. He’s trying to relax into it. It’s an incredibly difficult and vigorous move. He was really into yoga, and I got into it during filming and tried to do it every day, focusing on breathing and shutting the world off around me."
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