LOS ANGELES -- Jack Nicholson looked on from his usual courtside seat beside music legend Lou Adler, each donning sunglasses, as always. NBA commissioner Adam Silver stood along the baseline, a hand over his heart. Fans packed the Staples Center stands around them, leaving few empty seats. And as a young woman, aglow in a spotlight, began belting out the national anthem, one of those fans shouted down into the darkness, “We love you, Kobe!”
But for the first time in two decades' worth of season openers for the NBA’s glamour franchise, Kobe Bryant wasn’t anywhere to be found. The Los Angeles Lakers icon retired in April after 20 seasons in purple and gold, having won five NBA championships. On Wednesday against the Houston Rockets, the Lakers played their first regular-season game since then without him and won 120-114.
Instead of focusing on Bryant, as the Lakers had all last season during a whirlwind farewell tour capped by an unforgettable 60-point finale, the team highlighted its promising youth during a pregame video tribute. “The time is now!” it touted between highlight clips. And when first-year coach Luke Walton was introduced, the crowd roared its approval, with many fans howling “Luuuuuke” as they had during his eight-and-a-half years (and two titles) as a Lakers player.
Those same young players lived up to the pregame hype, electrifying a crowd that turned delirious in the final minutes after several key plays helped the Lakers seal an impressive win –- no small feat for a team that notched only 17 wins last season. Third-year shooting guard Jordan Clarkson carried the Lakers home with 25 points off the bench –- including several late buckets –- and second-year point guard D'Angelo Russell scored 20.
“The guys really fought,” Walton said. “A big part of what we are trying to do here is develop this identity, this culture. We keep using [that] word and learning how to win games is part of figuring out who we are and it’s a skill at this level.”
Walton, who at 36 is the NBA’s youngest head coach, had several family members on hand for his head-coaching debut with the Lakers, including his three brothers, mother Susie and father and NBA legend Bill Walton, who sat in on his son's pregame media session, wearing a purple and gold Lakers shirt in the back of the room, beaming from ear to ear.
While Bill looked on with pride, Luke, who spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach with the mighty Golden State Warriors, discussed taking over a rebuilding team that posted a franchise-worst 17-65 record last season and has missed the playoffs for three straight seasons, a franchise-long drought.
“Fans are smart,” Luke Walton said. “They know that it takes time. After every dynasty ends, there’s always that rebuilding process -- maybe not with the Spurs and Patriots, but with every other team that’s ever played.”
He added, “It’s not like we’re rebuilding from the first step right now. [The Lakers have] put in some pain already.”
Indeed, the Lakers’ historic slide has netted them three consecutive lottery picks: forward Julius Randle, the seventh overall pick in 2014; point guard D’Angelo Russell, the second overall pick in 2015; and Brandon Ingram, the second overall pick in 2016. The Lakers consider these players, along with forward Larry Nance Jr. and Clarkson, the cornerstones of their future.
“We’re building toward being great again,” Luke Walton said, “and I think we have pieces here that can make that happen.”
Bryant, speaking Tuesday during a Facebook Live discussion hosted by the Wall Street Journal and concerning Silicon Valley and his post-career ambitions, was asked if he would be checking NBA scores now that the season had begun.
“I have no championship on the line,” Bryant said. “I have absolutely no reason to check the scores.”
But even if Bryant has moved on, his presence was still felt Wednesday. Russell told ESPN’s crew before the game that he spoke with Bryant on Tuesday and told him he was ready.
“He told me I looked ready,” Russell said. “Coming from him, that was great to hear going into opening night.”
After the game, Luke Walton admitted being pleased with his first win as Lakers coach, but he then praised his players’ effort and placed the game in context.
“Tonight is a baby step,” he said. “It’s just one game. But it’s a step in the right direction of what we are trying to do.”
Said Randle: “It’s just one game. It’s not the dang Super Bowl.”
It was just one game, but it offered signs of hope. One such sign: After watching Bryant dominate the ball throughout his farewell tour, the young Lakers played freely Wednesday, especially in the new selfless culture that Walton is trying to build.
“There are a few teams in the league that play selfless and it doesn’t matter whose night it could be or what’s going on: guys still seem to play for their teammates,” Russell said. “I feel like the better we can do, including myself, on playing for each other, the better it will be for us.”
The Lakers couldn’t have scripted a better start to the post-Kobe Bryant era. Wednesday provided not only an inspired win, but it turned the page to the next chapter in the franchise’s history in exciting fashion, giving fans hope that maybe this rebuilding season might be fun, surprising and worth watching closely.
