Los Angeles Lakers receive visit from Dave Chappelle for their “genius series”

The Los Angeles Lakers had Dave Chappelle in for their most recent Genius Series to speak with the team.

The Los Angeles Lakers had a special guest in their facility recently. Anyone who watched the Chappelle Show, remembers the clip of Chappelle dressed as Prince dunking on Charlie Murphy, and uttering the classic line, “game, blouses.” This week, he was on the basketball court again with Los Angeles Lakers, for a completely different reason.

Barely fourteen games into the season, it is too early to say the Lakers are in the midst of a great season. However, at 12-2, they do enjoy a seat at the top of the NBA standings, somewhere they have not been in quite some time, which is a great start.

It does not look like they are going to get complacent any time soon either, and they are constantly looking for ways to improve the team culture. They are even looking for outside inspiration, to learn from individuals that are greats in other occupations outside of basketball.

Their latest guest in their quest to learn from greatness as a part of their “genius series,” was comedian and actor Dave Chappelle. He is best known as a legendary stand up comic and was at the top of television when he had his own show titled “the Chappelle Show” from 2003-2006.

More recently he has returned to center stage with his Netflix specials that have started some controversy lately but have also brought him back to the top of his craft. It is obvious Chappelle is no stranger to success, and he also has a ton of advice and stories that could help the Lakers players on their own path to greatness this season.

Not only did Dave provide a unique perspective on what it is to be great. He also provided them with some of what he has had to deal with as a successful African-American in society, something that most of the Lakers’ roster has to deal with, in their own lives.

Lakers’ guard Danny Green explained it best when he talked to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.

"“His life experiences have made him or changed him, and it helps us grow as people. African Americans have been in his position before. So he sees a lot of us in himself and passed on some really good knowledge today, some things to take home with us to think about.”"

But if you let Kyle Kuzma tell the story, Chappelle’s talk was not all serious and of course, included some humor.

“He’s just a funny person, I think he may have tried to be serious, but he ended up just kind of being funny because that’s who he is,” Kuzma said.

After Dave gave the team some words of wisdom, Lakers’ guard Quinn Cook gave him some tips for his game on the court. It looked like Dave wanted to work on his step-back jumper, and Cook was showing him the motions on how to execute it properly during shootaround.

Lakers’ head coach Frank Vogel had plenty of great things to say about Chapelle during his visit, and gave an explanation as to why they brought him in, saying,

"“He’s great,” Vogel said. “That guy’s incredible. He really is. Our whole mindset with the genius series is to just get people that are the best at what they do. He’s the best of all time at stand-up comedy and his parts in acting and everything. We just like to get a peek, get a glimpse into what it took to become the best for those guys. He had some great messages for our guys.”"

Chappelle is the second person to speak to the Lakers this season as part of the “genius series.” The first speaker of the group happened to be the magician David Blaine, and in past years they have brought in talented individuals like Elon Musk, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Denzel Washington, and Los Angeles native Kendrick Lamar.

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It is not completely clear how the genius talks started, but common sense would point to it being general manager Rob Pelinka’s idea. He is known for his quirky quotes and sources of inspiration outside of basketball, so it is not a surprise to see this type of experience going on with the Lakers organization while he is running the show.

Being apart of the Lakers organization and living in Los Angeles comes with perks that are just not available while playing for most franchises, and apparently meeting and talking with celebrities on a normal workday is one of them. Most people wouldn’t dream of meeting someone like Chappelle at work, but for the Lakers players, it has become commonplace.

In years past, these pep talks have not done much for the Lakers in the win column, but this season already seems different, and having Chappelle around to lighten the mood is not going to hurt. It is smart for the Lakers to use whatever advantages that their Hollywood brand provides them, especially when their title window appears to be open right now.

If anything, these types of experiences are only going to bring this already tight-knit group of teammates closer together. Shared off the court friendship or comradery, sometimes can be the key to building better chemistry on the floor as well.

So who is next on tap for the genius series? Maybe Bill Gates will make an appearance to help get an upper hand on the in house rival, Steve Balmer’s Clippers. Probably not, but anything to get a little advantage can not be that bad of an idea.