The first trailer for Hulu’s Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers is here and PEOPLE has the exclusive premiere.
The 10-part docuseries, directed by Antoine Fuqua and premiering Aug. 15, gives fans a never-before-seen look into how Dr. Jerry Buss turned a struggling basketball team into one of the sport’s most successful franchises.
“My dad, he just wanted to make his mark,” explains his daughter and current Lakers president, Jeanie Buss, in the trailer.
The Lakers won the NBA Championship in Jerry’s first year, plus seven more from 1982 to 2002. Fans watched as their star, Magic Johnson, retired after announcing that he was HIV-positive, and as the Buss family brought in Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant to jumpstart the team again.
“Shaq was going to turn the franchise around,” Jeanie says.
Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty (L-R) Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson and Shaquille O’Neal after winning the 2000 NBA Championship
Featuring exclusive access to the Buss Family and probing, revealing interviews with players, coaches, and front office execs, the series chronicles this extraordinary story from the inside — told only by the people who lived it.
“We want Laker fans to watch this and enjoy it, which I believe they will,” Jeanie tells PEOPLE. “But we also want a new generation of fans who may not be basketball fans to enjoy the story and about the family drama that exists because this is a family business.”
Along with the Buss family, Magic Johnson, O’Neal and the team’s current star — LeBron James — all sit down for interviews.
“The pressure. That’s what really drives me,” James says of being a Laker. “To wear purple and gold — that’s a different feeling.”
Hulu
James also talks about the days, weeks and months after Bryant’s tragic death in 2020, and how it motivated the current team to win another championship — the team’s 17th — for the Lakers later that year.
“We just all broke down in tears,” James says. “I knew after that moment, we were going to win a championship. I knew we were.”
Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers premieres Aug. 15 on Hulu, with new episodes streaming weekly.
