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Kendrick Perkins Boldly Claims the Los Angeles Lakers Are Saving the NBA

Big-market team to the rescue.

Kyle Koster

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) controls the ball against the New Orleans Pelicans during the first half at Crypto.com Arena.
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) controls the ball against the New Orleans Pelicans during the first half at Crypto.com Arena. / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
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The Los Angeles Lakers are currently on a seven-game winning streak, which has totally transformed the Western Conference playoff picture. Dealing for Luka Doncic immediately turned them into the most interesting team in the league and they've responded to all of that attention by morphing into a legitimate championship team. Not enough of a sell yet?

ESPN's Kendrick Perkins thinks they doing something incredibly important.

"Right now, the Los Angeles Lakers are saving the NBA," he said on Wednesday's NBA Today. " A month ago, I'm going to ask you a question: how excited were you all a month ago before the Luka trade about the NBA Finals?"

It's a heck of a question to ask your co-workers on a daily show about the NBA but Perkins does things his own way.

"So now you can honestly say that you're more excited because we could possibly get Boston vs. Lakers with the superstar power," he said. "When you have Showtime back in LA, now all of the sudden excitement, the energy and everything else is back towards the NBA."

There is no doubt that ESPN/ABC is excited about the potential of the Lakers making the NBA Finals. They will draw more eyeballs than any other team. But this must be tough for fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder to hear. Here their teams were having historically great seasons and it apparently put the league in a position where it needed to be saved by a brave large-market franchise.

The NBA had to endure some unfortunate vibes after its lackluster All-Star Weekend was unfairly compared to a one-of-its-kind international hockey tournament so they'll take the win. Yet the situation probably wasn't as dire as a lot of people pretended it to be.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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