Bo Burnham will put his height to good use playing Larry Bird in HBO's 1980s Lakers series

Bo Burnham is putting his height to good use by playing former NBA MVP Larry Bird in the currently untitled Lakers project coming to HBO.

The 6-foot-5-inch tall actor, comedian, and director fresh off an unexpected turn in the Oscar-nominated film Promising Young Woman has been cast in the upcoming Adam McKay-produced drama series based on the book Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s by Jeff Pearlman.

While the show will focus on the multiple championship-winning 1980s Los Angeles Lakers team featuring iconic basketball players like Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, much of that era being covered is colored by Johnson's historic rivalry with Bird, the star player on the Boston Celtics during that decade.

The show will also star Quincy Isaiah as Johnson, Solomon Hughes as Abdul-Jabbar, Adrien Brody as notable Lakers coach Pat Riley, Jason Segel as former Lakers coach Paul Westhead, and Sally Field, John C. Reilly, and Jason Clarke as various characters involved in managing the team during the Showtime Era.

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