Austin Reaves gives Lakers fans more reasons to love him as old posts resurface

To say that Austin Reaves has become a huge fan-favorite with the Los Angeles Lakers would be an understatement. Reaves’ journey since joining the Lakers as an undrafted free agent in 2021 has been great to watch unfold and fans are appreciative of it.

After losing Alex Caruso thanks to the front office’s penny-pinching efforts, fans latched onto Reaves as being the next unproven, hard-working player that earned his spot on an NBA roster. Player-wise the two are different — Caruso being more of a defensive specialist while Reaves is better offensively — but the love for the two players is very similar.

Perhaps the no. 1 reason why fans love Reaves (outside of him playing his tail off) is the fact that you can tell through the screen that he wants and loves being a Laker. He isn’t taking this opportunity for granted and wants to do everything to not only win games but entertain Lakers fans.

That is because Reaves was once a fan himself. Internet sleuths were able to find decade-old Facebook posts from Reaves that make it clear that he has loved the purple and gold since day one.

"Laker by blood from lakers"

We’ll give him a pass for the incorrect use of an apostrophe on the team name but it is still crazy to see Reaves live-posting a game like many of us do on Twitter while he is playing for the team.

Lakers fans love Austin Reaves because they see themselves in him.

Let’s not get it twisted, Austin Reaves is a far more athletic and skilled basketball player than all of us sitting in the seats watching him play. But that aside, it is clear that fans see themselves in Reaves because he plays the right way in the purple and gold.

Fans would hope that this bleeds over into the offseason as well. Reaves is a free agent this summer and the last thing fans want to see is a repeat of what happened with Caruso. LA has the means to bring Reaves back but that daunting repeater tax may swing Jeannie Buss the other way.

Maybe, just maybe, Reaves is willing to take slightly less money to stay on his favorite team with the promise of the team taking care of him in the future. But that is still a very tough position to put a player in and isn’t fair. Reaves deserves the right to get paid his worth from the multi-billion dollar sports franchise.

But because of the lessons learned from the Caruso situation and the love for Reaves from the fanbase, the Lakers should be able to come to their senses and ensure that Reaves and his old Facebook posts stay in LA.