The 2019 NBA offseason was likely the craziest summer in league history in terms of player movement and nowhere in the world was affected more than the city of Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Lakers added Anthony Davis alongside LeBron James while the Los Angeles Clippers signed Kawhi Leonard and traded for Paul George. Now, no matter what night of the week it is, fans can head to the Staples Center and see championship-caliber basketball being played.
While all the players involved in it have denied the existence of a rivalry brewing at the Staples Center, the fans and media have fully bought into a Lakers versus Clippers duel for supremacy in Los Angeles. Being the businessman that he is, James sees how great this is for not only both teams, but the city as a whole.
When asked about the winners and losers of the NBA’s wild summer, James said that the biggest winner had to be the Staples Center as there’s must-see entertainment in that arena on a nightly basis now.
“Staples Center is the biggest winner of the summer. If you’re a fan of the game of basketball, you get an opportunity to see the Clippers one night, then you get an opportunity to see the Lakers,” James said.
“Then you got great shows and great performers and artists and everybody who comes through Staples Center throughout the year. Staples Center is the place to be. Maybe even Sierra Canyon can go there and play a game, just throwing that out there.”
James has always been good at taking a question from a reporter and giving a very unexpected answer and one that goes the opposite direction of where the person asking the question was hoping he’d go.
Every NBA fan was hoping James would say something about the Lakers-Clippers rivalry or even about the Brooklyn Nets overtaking the New York Knicks. Instead, James went off on a tangent about the Staples Center and even shouted out his son’s high school basketball team.
Having said all this, James is ultimately right. The Staples Center has always been referred to as the entertainment capital of the world and never has that been truer than the 2019-20 NBA season.
Everything has fallen into place for the Los Angeles sports teams and James, Davis, Leonard, and George will be at the forefront of all of that, making sure the city is the place to be.