When the NBA announced the addition of the In-Season Tournament, no one knew quite what to expect from it. But one thing that was for sure was that it wouldn’t replace the importance of the actual NBA Playoffs. The Los Angeles Lakers became the first ever In-Season Tournament Champions and it was a nice accomplishment for the franchise.
However, that was never the goal for the Lakers or any other team in the league. Raising the Larry O’Brien Trophy at the end of the season is the ultimate accomplishment and the Lakers fell well short, being eliminated by the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass unfortunately missed this point, however, as following the Lakers’ playoff exit, she took to social media to praise them for winning the In-Season Tournament in a now-deleted tweet, via Rachel Nichols of FS1:
I'm not sure what to say except that this is a real tweet from LA's mayor. pic.twitter.com/7Tfjof8Qca
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) April 30, 2024
While the sentiment is nice, it is simply not what anyone wants to hear after seeing their season end. The Lakers goal is always championships and Bass was seemingly unaware. But she did remove the post and replaced it with something a bit better, simply thanking the team for the effort they gave:
You left it all on the floor — thank you @Lakers ????
— Mayor Karen Bass (@MayorOfLA) April 30, 2024
The intentions of Bass were well-meaning as she simply wanted to focus on a positive goal the Lakers did accomplish earlier in the year. But in that moment, those things just don’t matter as even though the In-Season Tournament was a success, it pales in comparison to the importance NBA Playoffs, especially in the immediate aftermath of a loss.
At the very least, Bass recognized what she had done and switched things up. And most importantly, she is still supporting the Lakers overall and wants to see them hang another banner inside the Crypto.com Arena.
Magic Johnson apologizes for Lakers load management tweet
The Mayor of Los Angeles wasn’t the only person who caught some flak for a Lakers related tweet either as Magic Johnson came under scrutiny for a tweet in which he claimed the team hurt their playoff seeding by losing too many games earlier in the year due to load management.
But once it was pointed out that the Lakers’ top players were all healthy and played over 70 games, Magic apologized for his original post and said that it was injuries that doomed the Lakers’ season.
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