(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
The NBA’s first-ever In-Season Tournament is officially in the books, with the Los Angeles Lakers wiping the floor with the competition by going undefeated and getting the best of the Indiana Pacers in the championship game in Las Vegas over the weekend.
After the Lakers beat the Pacers to be the first team to win the tournament, there was some debate on whether the storied NBA franchise would up a championship banner at Crypto.com Arena.
Initially, it seemed as though the Lakers were not going to have a banner to acknowledge the accomplishment, but that’s no longer the case, with the team set to raise the banner before their next home game in Los Angeles against the visiting New York Knicks on December 18, according to Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report and NBA insider Marc Stein.
Lakers will raise an In-Season Tournament championship banner inside Crypto Arena, per B/R’s @ChrisBHaynes and @TheSteinLine
The banner will be revealed on December 18 pic.twitter.com/S5rPySS78b
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 11, 2023
Unlike the 17 NBA championship banners that currently hang in the rafters at Crypto.com Arena, which is tied for a league record along with the arch-rival Boston Celtics, the In-Season Tournament championship banner will be slightly different.
Apparently, there will be only one banner for the In-Season Tournament for the Lakers, with the team set to make it look different than the other banners while leaving space for years to be added in the future.
Even though there’s bound to be some criticism for the Lakers raising the banner, it seems like the right move if the league is going to embrace this tournament and make it a point of emphasis during the regular season moving forward.
The post Lakers Will Honor In-Season Tournament Win In Unique Way appeared first on The Cold Wire.