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Dave McMenamin, ESPN Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES — The new in-season tournament championship banner unveiled by the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday won’t be mistaken for the NBA title totems that dot the rafters at Crypto.com Arena, but it’s something the team is proud of in its own right.
“I think it’s great for the organization,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said before L.A. hosted the New York Knicks. “Obviously [the tournament is] something that’s going to be around. It’s only going to get bigger and better. I think it’s really, really cool that we’re doing that. Especially being the first to win the inaugural in-season tourney.”
Lakers players paused their pregame warmups for a brief ceremony about 20 minutes prior to tipoff. A video tribute featuring highlights from L.A.’s 7-0 run through the tournament, culminating in a championship win over the Indiana Pacers in Las Vegas a week and a half ago, was played on the video board.
And then a black curtain that covered the banner was lowered to display the new wall mount.
The banner — black, with gold accents, featuring a graphic of the NBA Cup trophy in the middle and 2023 to note the year they won it — is about half the size of the 12 banners representing the franchise’s NBA championships since relocating to L.A. It’s grouped in the rafters to the left of those, along with the five banners honoring the titles won in Minneapolis.
While the NBA championship banners won in L.A. are horizontally justified, the in-season tourney banner is vertical, with a pointed bottom, resembling a medieval-style jousting match decoration.
The ceremony was simple. NBA commissioner Adam Silver was not on hand. Lakers governor Jeanie Buss did not take the court. Other than showing the video recap and unveiling the banner, the actual NBA Cup trophy was placed on a table at center court while the Lakers stood beside it and were recognized by the Lakers public address announcer, Lawrence Tanter, as the champs.
Those in attendance were given black T-shirts that commemorated the tournament title and the Lakers wore their black, alternative uniforms that they went 3-0 in during tourney play.
Lakers great Kobe Bryant famously touted the team’s celebration standards by refusing to hang division championship banners to clutter the space that honors all the Larry O’Brien Trophies the franchise has accumulated; however Monday’s ceremony was still met by a warm ovation from the home fans.
All of the in-season tournament games, other than the championship, counted as regular season games, so it was appropriate the pregame ceremony quickly wrapped up without any player or coach taking a microphone to address the crowd. LeBron James simply took a few steps from the center circle towards the 3-point line and his teammates followed, returning to their lay-up lines to prepare for another regular season game.
“It’s a great shot in the arm in terms of us rising to the occasion from a competitive standpoint,” Ham said of the tournament’s role in infusing intensity to the early-season schedule. “And it furthermore creates and sustains a foundation that we’re trying to set in terms of getting through the regular season and then, ultimately, into the playoffs.”
L.A. was 3-5 before the tournament began in early November and used an undefeated run to shoot up as high as No. 4 in the Western Conference standings.
Since the tournament wrapped, L.A. went 1-2 on a road trip through Dallas and San Antonio, however, before Monday night’s matchup with the Knicks. While Friday’s loss to the Spurs that snapped an 18-game losing streak for San Antonio was a letdown, it came with a silver lining: that was the same day each player’s $500,000 winnings were deposited as a lumpsum payment in their accounts, sources told ESPN.
While Lakers players acknowledged the obvious emotional letdown that accompanied getting back into the swing of things after the tournament ended, Ham praised the overall experience.
“I think it’s huge, man,” he said. “The intensity in which everyone played. You could feel it. I think it’s great. Anytime you can get highly competitive basketball with the best athletes in the world, I think it’s great for the fans, great for the organizations and ultimately great for the NBA.”