Lakers make decision on whether to hang banner for In-Season Tournament win
Apr 22, 2023; Los Angeles, California, USA; The Los Angeles Lakers logo at center court during game three of the 2023 NBA playoffs at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
It is time for the Los Angeles Lakers to (unironically) hang the banner.
Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports reported on Monday that the Lakers have decided that they will indeed be hanging a banner at Crypto.com Arena to honor their victory in this year’s In-Season Tournament. The Lakers went a perfect 7-0 in tournament play and beat the Indiana Pacers in Saturday’s final to win the inaugural IST trophy.
Haynes adds that the IST banner will be a different shape and color than the Lakers’ other championship banners to create distinction. Additionally, it will be a single forever banner where future dates and years will be added should the Lakers go on to win additional IST titles.
There was some definite debate over whether an In-Season Tournament victory (essentially showcasing superiority in a bunch of regular season games) was worthy of a banner, especially for an organization as storied as the Lakers. The IST is not a championship (which the Lakers franchise has 17 of) and just debuted this year after over 75 years of the NBA’s existence.
Still, the Lakers are treating it like the real thing, albeit with some notable contrasts. This was probably the expected outcome all along, particularly given how hard the Lakers celebrated their IST victory.
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