Yes, this is the busiest and most diverse sports market on the planet, as we’ve pointed out here before. But there are two constants, two teams that tower above the rest when it comes to popularity and interest in Southern California.
Read more Spider-man, Toy Story, Ghostface are 2026 hottest Halloween Costumes
One was just knocked out of its sport’s postseason less than a week ago. The other begins its own quest – a longshot if you believe the experts, but with a “this just might work” attitude as the Luka Doncic era goes into overdrive – Wednesday evening.
Dodgers and Lakers. Take your pick. Or, as so many people in this region do, root for both.
The NBA actually began its season Tuesday, but L.A.’s teams begin at home Wednesday night, the Lakers against Golden State downtown and the Clippers against Sacramento in Inglewood.
Current status? The Lakers have reason for optimism, and the Clippers are starting from behind.
Lakers fans still remain hopeful that Banner No. 18 eventually will be hung on the wall, seven seasons after Banner 17 went up. (Some would say they’re delusional, but we’ll leave that discussion for another day.)
The reality: League-wide they’re no longer considered an elite team, and in fact the center of gravity in the Western Conference these days is the 463 miles between Paycom Center in Oklahoma City and Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, most of it on I-35.
OKC won it all in 2025 and swept the Lakers in the conference semifinals last spring. San Antonio knocked off the Thunder in the conference finals – which seemed to herald 7-foot-4 Victor Wembanyama’s arrival as the NBA’s next true force – only to have the Jalen Brunson-led New York Knicks beat them and end a 53-year title drought.
The Thunder and Spurs present imposing obstacles, especially San Antonio with Wembanyama. So it should have been no shock that as the Lakers revamped their roster to surround Doncic with compatible players, president and GM Rob Pelinka acquired 7-2 rim protector/lob threat Walker Kessler from Utah for two first-round picks and two additional pick swaps.
Just think: George Mikan, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal … Walker Kessler?
Ah, no pressure. As Kessler noted after Friday’s exhibition game against Denver, “The support system around me with my teammates, the coaching staff, front office, they’re fantastic. They’re very vocal about, obviously being a Lakers big, there’s a certain legacy with that, but not to look at it as pressure, more so as an opportunity.”
It comes with the uniform. Even when discord and uncertainty swirl around them – the sale to Joshua Kirshner and Bob Iger hasn’t closed yet, and the battle among Buss family members over whether to sell their minority shares (and end Jeanie Buss’ tenure as the team’s governor) is unseemly but not surprising – the expectations of competing for a championship never change inside the Lakers’ building.
Read more Survey: Concern about AI growing in Silicon Valley, even among tech workers
Outside? Expectations for a roster with nine new players are light. That could make this a fun season to watch if the Lakers do sneak up on people. For sure, it will be a different environment since LeBron James and his agent, Rich Paul, have taken their oversized influence to Philadelphia.
But yes, they’ll get a visit from LeBron and the Sixers on Christmas Day. It couldn’t have been a surprise that the league delayed its schedule release until LeBron selected his next team.
The 2026-27 Lakers’ roster also includes the most difficult spelling task in the NBA: Sandro Mamukelashvili, a 6-9 forward/center who is of Georgian descent but actually was born in New York, attended Seton Hall and is a five-year veteran. Just call him Mamu.
Meanwhile, the Clippers are again an afterthought after a brutal offseason, by all means not what owner Steve Ballmer had in mind when he sat for that introductory news conference with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George at a rec center in South L.A. in July 2019.
(The headline on the online version of that column, by the way, read: “The Clippers aren’t Lakers’ ‘little brother’ any more.” Were we maybe too hasty?)
The Leonard/George era was intended to give the Clippers a shot at a banner or banners of their very own. It not only didn’t achieve that goal but ended disastrously, and the NBA’s penalties for the salary cap circumvention strategy meant to placate Leonard mean that as this season begins the faces of the franchise over the last several seasons are missing.
Leonard is back in Toronto trying to recapture his own championship mojo. George, who left as a free agent in the summer of 2024, is now a Boston Celtic – and you can imagine how the guardians of Celtics’ tradition are handling that. James Harden, acquired by trade from Philadelphia in a three-team trade (also involving OKC and draft picks) in 2023, was sent to Cleveland at the deadline in February for Darius Garland, now the closest the Clippers have to a marquee player on what seems to be a depleted roster.
And Ballmer, president of business operations Gillian Zucker and and chief basketball decision-maker Lawrence Frank all received suspensions handed down by commissioner Adam Silver, Ballmer and Zucker for a year and Frank for six months.
This would make coach Ty Lue the face of the franchise, and maybe that’s for the best. He’s going to have to do more with less, especially with a bunch of players on the injured list to start the season. Keaton Wagler, the 19-year-old from Illinois selected with the No. 5 pick in the draft, may have an inordinate amount of responsibility on his shoulders from the start.
Then again, the current situation – the Lakers with some grounds for optimism, the Clippers hoping for the best while wondering if and when they’ll ever get a break – seems like just the natural order of things in Southern California. (Yes, Clippers fan, I know you’ll object, but you still seem to be in the minority around here.)
This is, after all, the Noah’s Ark of sports, with two of just about everything, and in many cases one team dominates attention and loyalties – and yes, banners – while the other perpetually struggles to catch up.
Read more NASCAR Hall of Famer Fred Lorenzen diagnosed with CTE, first known case in racecar driver
So this is normal.