Lakers embrace IST win with banner ceremony

LOS ANGELES — The new in-season tournament championship banner unveiled by the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday night 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,” coach Darvin Ham said before the Lakers lost to the New York Knicks 114-109. “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 just over a week ago, was played on the videoboard.

Then a black curtain that covered the banner was lowered to display the new decor.

“I think it’s awesome,” LeBron James said after finishing with 25 points, 11 assists and 11 rebounds to notch the 109th triple-double of his career. “To be able to acknowledge wins throughout the course of a marathon, I think that’s pretty cool. That’s the first, the inauguration of it. 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, something that will live on forever for sure here. So, it was a good moment.”

The banner — black with gold accents, featuring a graphic of the NBA Cup trophy in the middle and 2023 to note the year the Lakers won it — is about half the size of the 12 banners representing the franchise’s NBA championships since relocating to L.A. It is situated 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 jousting match decoration.

The ceremony was simple. NBA commissioner Adam Silver was not on hand. Lakers governor Jeanie Buss did not take the court. After the video recap and the banner reveal, the NBA Cup was placed on a table at center court while the Lakers stood beside the trophy and were recognized by 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 for its refusal to hang division championship banners in 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 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. James simply took a few steps from the center circle toward the 3-point line, and his teammates followed, returning to their layup 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 into 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 rise as high as No. 4 in the Western Conference standings.

Since the tournament wrapped, L.A. is just 1-3. The Lakers went 1-2 on a trip through Dallas and San Antonio before Monday night’s matchup with the Knicks. While Friday’s defeat at 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 L.A. player’s $500,000 in tournament winnings was deposited as a lump-sum payment in their accounts, sources told ESPN.

Anthony Davis, who led L.A. with 32 points and 14 rebounds against New York, said other factors — road games, injuries, illness and a back-to-back set of games — have contributed more to the downturn than any carryover effect from the tournament.

“I mean, we’re not losing by 20. We’re in every game. We’re fighting. Competing. Playing hard,” Davis said. “I don’t think it’s a — what do they call it? … The championship hangover. I don’t think that it’s one of those.”

James said the emotional letdown, which several of his teammates acknowledged on the last road trip, “could be” a factor and pointed out that Indiana also is just 1-4 since the championship game.

Ever the optimist, Ham praised the overall experience, even as his team finds itself struggling again after shining in front of the bright lights in Vegas.

“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.”

L.A. closes out the month with five out of seven games on the road, starting with a three-game trip (against the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday, the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday). And one of the home games it plays is against the Boston Celtics, the No. 1 team in the East, on Christmas Day.

“We want to finish out December the right way,” James said. “Obviously, it’s been a killer for us with the travel and games and things of that nature. There is no rest for the weary. We just got to mentally stay locked in and get ready for Chicago first.”