Lakers News: Every LA Player From Season Would Receive Ring If Team Won Title
With your Los Angeles Lakers gritting their way to an unlikely 3-1 series edge over the reigning champion Golden State Warriors yesterday, LA is now on the cusp of returning to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2020.
Ex-Lakers point guards Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley, who arguably improved Los Angeles through their absences, both have been advocating for some title hardware should LA actually advance beyond the Western Conference Finals and win the whole darn thing.
Westbrook, a Long Beach native, finished his season losing to the Phoenix Suns in a five-game first round series as a starter for the Los Angeles Clippers. Beverley missed the playoffs for the first time ever while starting for his hometown Chicago Bulls. Both 34-year-old veterans are unrestricted free agents this summer.
Now, per Chris Haynes of TNT, it appears that Los Angeles has confirmed that Westbrook, Beverley, and every other former 2022-23 Laker will receive a ring if the team does indeed go all the way this year.
"Now, if the Lakers were able to win the whole thing, win the championship, I was told by a high-ranking source within the organization that they would extend a championship ring to all players who were on the roster at any point during this season," Haynes said. "So that means, if the Lakers win the whole, Russell Westbrook Patrick Beverley, and others will receive a championship ring. I was told that was a protocol and a system that was put in place by Rob Pelinka when he took over [the team president role in 2017]. It's just a way to make players understand that [the Lakers] value them, even though they didn't make it from [the] beginning to the end of the season with the Lakers."
Those unnamed "others" would include center Thomas Bryant, currently riding pine for the Denver Nuggets; combo guard Kendrick Nunn, who was flipped to the Washington Wizards in the Rui Hachimura trade; and shooting guard Davon Reed, who was cut so that LA could free up a second roster spot on the final day of the regular season, which the team used to sign combo guard Shaquille Harrison and reserve big man Tristan Thompson.
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