There's a tipping point that happens with soccer in which you just kinda get it. I was drawn to it because the best soccer teams play similarly to my favorite basketball teams - like the eighties Lakers or eighties Celtics - teams that emphasized teamwork over individualism and relied on passing as their biggest ongoing edge.
Bill Simmons
I have nothing but respect for the Lakers. So many of their legends shaped who I am as a person and player.
Bill Walton
I love the feeling of being in front of a live crowd and performing and just kind of letting loose and getting the crowd involved, and I got to perform at the Superbowl and at the Staples Center, you know, at the Lakers game, which was amazing.
Carmella
When I was living in L.A., first of all, I had actually tried out or submitted to be on 'Tough Enough' when I was living in L.A. and then I ended up getting, like, a few call backs, but because I had just moved out there for the Lakers, I just felt like I couldn't have done both.
Anybody who doesn't think I want the Lakers to win is a fool. But I'm no homer.
Chick Hearn
I was huge on basketball and baseball. I love sports. I'm an L.A. guy. I love the Lakers and Dodgers.
Collin Morikawa
The Lakers fanbase is enormous. Getting the fans on our side is a huge advantage for us.
D'Angelo Russell
There's a lot of spoiled Lakers fans.
There is a lot of extra energy with being in a Lakers uniform.
People want to be Lakers. There's just so much pressure, and some guys handle it and some guys can't.
I just enjoy going to the games, but if you're watching the Lakers play, it feels good to be rooting for the Lakers. You're on the winning end of things most of the time.
Diane Lane
Michael Jackson, the 49ers and the Lakers - that's what I know about the '80s.
Dule Hill
I remember one time I wrote something very, very critical about Wilt Chamberlain. The next time I saw him - and Wilt was not a man, as huge as he was - he was not a man of confrontation. And we were in the Lakers locker room. And he sent Jerry West over, and he said, 'Frank, Wilt would like you to leave.'
Frank Deford
The year after Russell retired, in the famous seventh game of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden, Willis Reed, the New York Knicks center, limped onto the court against the Los Angeles Lakers, inspiring his team and freezing Chamberlain into a benign perplexity.
The Lakers have always been on the forefront and anywhere LeBron has been, has been on the forefront.
Frank Vogel
You never know who you're going to see there during a Lakers game.
As for middle school, I had a really horrible era of style. I'd only play basketball with the boys during lunch, so I went through a phase of only wearing Lakers uniforms to school - that was cute! And then I kind of went through the Puma phase that everyone went through with the sweatsuits, which turned into Juicy Couture sweatsuits.
Gigi Hadid
Basketball's eras are defined by teams - Celtics, Lakers, Bulls - and baseball's epochs are defined by players - Ruth, Robinson, Mantle - but with football, it's the sideline strategists, the nutty professors and top coated Lears.
J. R. Moehringer
My biggest concern for the Lakers - and they're going have to figure out a way to rectify this - is Lonzo Ball.
Jalen Rose
Yeah, I play a lot of their games. Going way back to Bulls vs. Lakers to the later Live stuff, I go at it quite a bit. More than anything tough, I play Madden.
Jason Kidd
As a kid, you always wanna play for either the Lakers or Boston just for the rivalry alone.
What I made clear to our front office is we're going to be judged by wins and losses. It isn't about having a marquee star player and coming in last place. That's not what Lakers basketball is. Lakers basketball is winning basketball.
Kobe is part of the Laker family and he always will be. There's not many players who play 18-19 years with the same franchise, and it's important to us that he has a chance to play his entire career with the Lakers.
Every fan wants to win every year, that's how my dad was. It would be nice to be able to do that every year, but I think Lakers fans know, as long as they see progress, and steps going in the right direction, they'll be patient.
The Lakers are my life.
I think people have to realize that - and basketball fans do, Lakers fans do - that we have to operate under the rules of the collective bargaining agreement, which means you can't just go and grab every player that you want.
In terms of basketball decisions, I will always defer to Magic. He's brought a vision of the kind of team we're going to build and a vision of what Lakers basketball is going to be.
You can't just live in the past, peddling the '80s Showtime Lakers, and expect everyone to know what that is. We have many fans who weren't even alive in the '80s.
Dr. Buss set the bar high for the Lakers.
I really wasn't expecting to fall so hard for Phil. As a matter of fact, when my dad said he was talking to Phil Jackson about him coming to L.A. to coach the Lakers, I tried to argue against it.
I had a tough year, losing my dad. And I really needed to have some quiet time, and not be engaged the way I normally would be with the Lakers.
The Lakers have figured out how to win in every era.
I think the Lakers are a legacy franchise. Players know when they come here, this is the ultimate platform.
The Lakers have been part of the process of revitalizing downtown L.A. That's what my dad's passion was. He loved to win, but he loved this city. He wanted this city to be proud of its team.
I can't tell you how many letters I get from grandmothers who say, 'It's the only thing I can talk to my 15-year-old grandson about.' The Lakers are more than just a basketball team to this city. They're part of this community.
Even before my dad passed away, people tried to buy the Lakers. Sony tried in the 1980s. People have always wanted to buy the Lakers. They're not for sale.
People didn't even know where the Lakers' training center was, because we didn't have a flagpole to say, 'This is our home.' We were kind of hidden in the back of the L.A. Kings' practice facility.
We could not be more proud to have LeBron James as part of our Lakers family. He is an incredibly thoughtful and intelligent leader and clearly appreciates the power sports has to unite communities and inspire the world to be a better place.
Who wouldn't want to own the Lakers?
I can't say that I grew up saying, 'Someday I want to be vice president of the Lakers,' because that's not how it happened. I work for our family business, and that happens to be the Lakers.
I have worked out with the Thunder, Lakers, Knicks, Grizzlies, Spurs, and a few others before the draft. I have worked out primarily against shorter and supposedly faster players in these workouts.
I don't know anything else but the Lakers. This has certainly been more than a job for me as a player. It has certainly meant more to me than just an occupation.
I have often wondered why I was never captain of the Lakers.
I remember, years ago, if I had had an opportunity to leave the Lakers, I would have left for one reason: because I did not like an owner that was not telling me the truth. And it would have made no difference what they would have offered me; I would have left.
The Lakers had been home to me, unlike the home I had grown up and felt apart from.
I grew up watching the Lakers.
There was a time period where I was obsessed with the rivalry between the Lakers and the Celtics in the 1980s.
Do you know how many teams have won three straight titles over the last 40 years? Two. Michael Jordan's Bulls twice in the 1990s and Kobe and Shaq's Lakers from 2000-02. LeBron would have joined that list had Miami won that third straight title.
I grew up watching the Lakers and the Dodgers and the Rams, all local men's professional teams, and never really had any women that I grew up watching.
I loved basketball and grew up with the Lakers and Magic Johnson. That was a big part of me.
