The Los Angeles Lakers will hang a banner to celebrate their NBA Cup win.
When the Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the 2021 playoffs and couldn’t protect their 2020 title, chief executive Rob Pelinka made it clear what the team’s goals were.
Pelinka said at the time, “We have an insatiable desire as well as passion to bring banner No. 18 here.”
He was talking about the team’s record-tying 17 NBA titles. There will be a tournament banner during the season that is different in shape and color from the gold NBA title banners that are all over the rafters.
The Lakers will be putting up a new banner inside the arena to show that they won the first NBA in-season event in Las Vegas.
However, the team wants to make sure that the NBA Cup win doesn’t get mixed up with their main goal of winning a championship.
Also, the Lakers will only have one in-season tournament sign to show off their win in 2023 and any other years they win the tournament after that.
L.A. will show off the flag at its next home game, against the Knicks of New York on December 18.
Another honor is for LeBron James and Anthony Davis, who were named on the seasonal all-tournament team on Monday.
Davis led L.A. to a 7-0 record by averaging 23.3 points, 14.6 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 2.9 blocks per game while shooting 52.5% from the field.
He scored 41 points (16-for-24 shooting), grabbed 20 rebounds, and blocked four shots in the win over the Pacers of Indiana on Saturday.
After beating the Indiana Pacers on Saturday to win the first NBA Cup, the Lakers said on Monday that they would hang a sign at Crypto.com Arena to honor the win.
Along with the team’s 17 NBA title banners and retired jerseys, such as those of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, as well as Kobe Bryant, the banner will be hung.
That being said, it won’t look such as their NBA trophies. In their own words, the Lakers will “unveil a unique, add-a-year in-season title banner, recognizing the initial 2023 win.”
They didn’t give any other information about the sign. But it looks like they are leaving room for future wins during the season to be honored under the exact same banner instead of putting up new ones.
All of this sounds like a good compromise that recognizes the novel success while keeping it separate from the most prestigious ones that are praised from the rooftops.
The Lakers are the first team to do this, so it will be how other teams celebrate winning the NBA Cup from now on.
The Lakers will put up the flag before the team’s game toward the New York Knicks on December 18.
Along with Pacers guard Tyrese Halliburton, Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant, they will honor LeBron James and Anthony Davis, who were both named to the All-Tournament Team.
In seven tournament games that the Lakers won, James averaged 26.4 points, eight rebounds, 7.6 assists, and 1.6 steals whereas shooting 56.8% from the field and 60.6% from 3-point range. He was named MVP.
When it comes to flags, the Los Angeles Lakers usually have very strict rules. They hang on to them for a championship or more. No person’s number is taken off the field until that player is admitted to the Hall for Fame.
Most teams would have a strict strategy like this, but remember that we’re talking about the Lakers. You can’t add many more title banners when you have a total of 17 of them.
As it stands, they’d need 19 more shields for conference wins and 33 more for division titles, therefore it makes sense to put some limits in place. At first, it looked like the in-season event wouldn’t make the final list by this measure.
Some news stories even said that the Lakers didn’t plan to put up a banner if they won the playoffs.
However, after beating the Indiana Pacers in Saturday to win the NBA’s first title, the Lakers chose to hang a banner, the team mentioned Monday.
The sign will be different from the ones that are now up showing the team’s 17 NBA titles. The Lakers won’t put up a different banner each time they win a tourney during the season.
Instead, they will erect one banner or add to it every time they win an event during the season. It will be a different color and style than the banners that are up in Los Angeles right now.
Aside from LeBron James, who was named tournament MVP, and Anthony Davis, who was named among the All-Tournament team, the Lakers will also honor them on December 18.
We don’t yet know if it will last or what form it will take. But buy-in in the teams that compete and win it will be very important to its long-term success.
The fact that the Lakers broke a rule to put up this flag is a good sign to earn the event going forward.