There has been some back and forth between the two Los Angeles teams about the Clippers’ decision to cover up the Lakers’ banners during home games.
Nick Young was the first to make headlines by saying Doc Rivers shouldn’t have so much power in only his first season with the team. Matt Barnes responded by saying no one not named Kobe or Pau should have any say on what the Clippers are doing to the banners. Meanwhile, Rivers said he had a say in the decision to cover them up and believed that the move should have been made years ago.
Word also got around to Magic Johnson about the situation, and here is what the former Laker great had to say:
Laker Nation: Doc Rivers has a right to cover up the @Lakers 16 NBA Championship Banners.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) October 25, 2013
Doc Rivers is just trying to create a winning culture with the Clipper organization.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) October 25, 2013
Laker Nation: We all still know that those 16 banners are up there and it shouldn’t bother us.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) October 25, 2013
It’s true that the banners represent all the accomplishments of the Lakers over the course of their history and that it should be respected. The fact of the matter, however, is that when the Clippers play home games, the arena is supposed to be their own. They and their fans shouldn’t have to look up and see the accomplishments of a team that has nothing to do with them. The Lakers would have a better case to feel upset if the banners were somehow taken down during the home games, but that’s not the case – all the Clippers are doing is covering the banners with photos of their players. What they do during their home games should be their business and their business only.
In reality, this is a non-issue. No one on the Lakers besides Young expressed any strong feelings about the matter, and even Johnson, who is responsible for a bunch of those banners, supports the idea.
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James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. Find him on twitter @SheridanBlog.