In recent years, the city of Los Angeles has become the sports capital of the world considering the success all of their major sports teams have had.
The Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Dodgers both won titles in 2020, while the Los Angeles Rams won Super Bowl LVI at home in SoFi Stadium in 2022. Outside of championships, Los Angeles also boasts some of sports’ biggest stars ranging from LeBron James to Mookie Betts and Aaron Donald.
Football, in particular, has risen in popularity after L.A. saw the Rams and Los Angeles Chargers come to town seven years ago. While the Rams have started to corner the L.A. fanbase, the Chargers have done well to build some momentum given the exciting young pieces they have on their roster.
The Chargers boast talented players on both sides of the field, with Derwin James being one of their leaders on the defense. James is favorite among the Chargers fanbase and he endeared himself to the City of Angeles further when he said he would play for the Lakers if he didn’t play football, via Lunchbox:
It’s not the first time James has been linked to the purple and gold as his head coach Brandon Staley said late last year that the safety reminds him of LeBron James due to his versatility on the field. Derwin’s traditionally a safety, but has the ability to cover receivers as well as play in the box closer to the line of scrimmage where he can stuff the run or rush the quarterback.
Like LeBron, Derwin probably also understands what playing for the Lakers would do for his individual popularity as the Lakers superstar was the most-viewed player on NBA social media during the 2022-23 season. That kind of attention does wonders for a player’s brand, but it’s perhaps just a fun fantasy for Derwin, who’s making his own name in the NFL.
Darvin Ham would like to see NBA implement bye week similar to NFL
The rigors of an 82-game regular season has hurt the Lakers in recent years as their stars have succumbed to multiple injuries. Although the NBA has done a better job with its schedule –eliminating more back-to-backs and getting rid of four games in five nights– there are still improvements that can be made to aid player safety and health.
Darvin Ham said in the middle of the 2022-23 season that he’d like to see the league implement a bye week similar to what the NFL does. The NBA already gives players a week off for All-Star Weekend, so another full week is probably out of the question.
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