Right off the bat let me say that my favorite sports team is the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers.
I live in the Los Angeles area where sports fans are said to be too laid back, which in the opinion of those who say that means that we are lackadaisical (lacking enthusiasm or determination). Wrong!
Los Angeles sports fans are real fans, just with year round great alternative choices to being at the game. So when we are at the game we want it to mean something, to be important enough to take our attention away from doing something else that would be just as engaging. The team on the court or on the field has to be good!
The Lakers have historically been great while at the same time being wildly entertaining. Over the past few years when they didn't make the playoffs they still were entertaining. That's why their games at StaplesCenter have still always been sold out, and there is still a multiple years long waiting list just to become a season ticket holder.
Like other fans of the NBA, Lakers fans love talking about their team. So does the national media. Even though the team hasn't made the playoffs, and even though certain sports media personalities say they lost interest in the team they still continued to talk about them (sometimes within the same broadcast where they swore off talking about them).
Everything that happens to the Lakers seems to be bigger. After the 2018-2019 season ended the "dysfunction" in the front office was a major story that wouldn't go away. There was a lot happening of course. But as it turns out there was turmoil in other NBA front offices that just wasn't being talked about. Is it because a conversation about other team's turmoil wouldn't move the needle as much as talking about the Lakers front office turmoil does? Probably so.
So at this point I am of the opinion that my favorite sports team (even among all the other LA sports teams) was not as bad off as the myriad of stories over this spring made them seem. Their turn around is still underway and still on track with the timeline that was given for it. The turn around is still a work in progress, but the progress has always been going forward for the past two years, despite the injuries to many of the players and reported collusion by other front offices and agents against the Lakers.
Like all NBA fans I am looking forward to seeing what will further develop in the building of rosters and I have high hopes for the 2019-2020 basketball season.
Every NBA front office will have challenges to over come, cap space, player conduct (on and off court), free agency, draft; that’s why GMs and Presidents are paid so well. Fun to see if East can maintain strength against the West.