The NBA needed something to make the players care about the regular season again. Commissioner Adam Silver came up with the In-Season Tournament idea, and it was a massive success, all things considered.
Nonetheless, as exciting as the games were, NBA fans are well aware of the fact that the NBA Cup is nothing compared to an actual championship. Winning seven games, with most of them coming against subpar teams, is nothing to brag about.
That’s why there was such a big debate about whether a franchise as historied as the Los Angeles Lakers should hang a banner for that tournament. According to Chris Haynes, they didn’t have much of a choice:
“I wasn’t sure they would do it, but I know the league really wanted any team who won the In-Season Tournament; they wanted the team to do something to kind of say that this is a big deal,” Haynes said on the #thisleague UNCUT podcast. “I know that the Lakers had a little bit of pressure. I don’t know to what extent, but I know the Lakers felt a little bit of pressure to do something.”
Lakers’ LeBron James Liked The Banner
Even so, LeBron James didn’t seem to have any complaints about hanging the banner. If anything, he sees it as a nice reminder of the path they walked this season:
“I think it’s awesome,” the veteran forward said of hanging the banner. “To be able to acknowledge wins throughout the course of the marathon, I think it’s pretty cool.”
LeBron also believes it was nice to have something to celebrate with the fans who didn’t get to join them in Las Vegas for the IST Final, even if it wasn’t an actual NBA Championship.
“It’s the first inauguration of it, and we were able to win it, so for our fans that didn’t get an opportunity to be in Vegas, they got an opportunity to kind of share that celebration with us tonight, share that moment,” added James. “Something that will live on forever for sure here, so it was a good moment.”
Austin Reaves Knows It’s Not That Big Of A Deal
On the flip side, Lakers guard Austin Reaves was pretty much unfazed by the ceremony. As cool as it may have seemed, he knows the Lakers are about winning the real thing:
“Yeah, I mean, it’s the first one, and it was cool,” Reaves said. “It was cool to be a part of winning that and that whole deal. But now that’s over, and we got to focus on the season and try to hang another one up at the end of the year.”
Perhaps the Lakers will only hang a banner for the inaugural edition of the tournament. Otherwise, it will just feel like they’re patting themselves on the back and have forgotten about their actual goal of hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy. That’s all that should matter for the winningest franchise in NBA history. That’s the way Kobe Bryant wanted it to be.
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