Lakers setting themselves up for embarrassment at upcoming home game?
Nov 20, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers President Jeanie Buss before the game against the Chicago Bulls at Staples Center. Bulls won 118-110. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
The Los Angeles Lakers may be laying the groundwork for their own roast.
The Lakers look like a Division II team right now, having fallen to 0-4 on the season with a double-digit loss to the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday. It has been an even more embarrassing start than the one they had during their epic failure of a year last season, and every member of the organization, from top-to-bottom, is facing scrutiny right now.
The shabby showing against Denver led some to question what would happen at the Lakers’ upcoming jersey retirement ceremony for the late George Mikan (scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 30). Sam Quinn of CBS Sports noted that such ceremonies are usually run by the owner or the GM of the franchise … but that Lakers owner Jeanie Buss and GM Rob Pelinka will risk getting booed into 2035 if they appear in front of the fans on Sunday.
The Lakers are retiring George Mikan’s number on Sunday. Usually the owner or GM leads such ceremonies. Jeanie spoke at Kobe’s ceremony.
I don’t think the Lakers can put Jeanie or Rob on the floor Sunday. They’d get booed so loudly it would overshadow Mikan’s long overdue honor.
— Sam Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) October 27, 2022
The Lakers are apparently unconcerned though because they confirmed in an official release on Thursday that Mikan’s jersey ceremony will take place as scheduled.
Lakers announce George Mikan’s jersey retirement for Sunday pic.twitter.com/njKKKdUvlk
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) October 27, 2022
Buss and Pelinka, the team’s primary decision-makers, have a very lengthy rap sheet of offenses in the eyes of Lakers fans. Among their many lowlights, they mangled the team that won the NBA championship in 2020 by making the disastrous Russell Westbrook trade, choosing Talen Horton-Tucker over Alex Caruso in free agency, and filling out the rest of the roster with either washed-up geezers or complete non-shooters, all thereby wasting multiple precious years of LeBron James’ twilight.
We’ve already seen other fanbases take their frustrations out on ownership during jersey retirement ceremonies. Unless the Lakers trot out a respected figure like Magic Johnson or Shaquille O’Neal to run Sunday’s ceremony, they risk a similar fate at the hands of their own fans.
