The Los Angeles Lakers’ football routine
If you’ve seen any semblance of a Laker game this year, you may have noticed one of the more bizarre and elaborate pregame routines by a team in quite some time: The football routine.
In this unusual pregame warmup, LeBron James takes the basketball and lines up on the baseline. With the help of Dwight Howard and usually a few others, he drops back to pass against a couple of other Lakers looking to blitz. Howard blocks said players and James throws a bomb out to half court. From there, fellow star Anthony Davis skies for the catch. Touchdown.
I’ll admit it. At first glance, this routine appeared to be a symbol of a team that wasn’t at all locked in. One could easily view these theatrics as disrespectful to the opposition and a poor use of time. However, the ritual continued and the Lakers climbed to the top of the standings.
As Lakers fans, we are used to the stoic presence of players like Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Kobe Bryant. In the LeBron and Davis era, things are a little different.
Despite the odd approach, it’s hard to argue with the results. The Lakers have cruised to the Western Conference Finals with chemistry at an all-time high. It seems as if staying loose and having fun has propelled this team to new heights. Even as we enter the later rounds of the playoffs, the routine will likely stick around.