LOS ANGELES — I don’t know what I expected, and maybe that’s the point. There isn’t a play you can draw up for people to process the pain and strain that wildfires have brought our way.
The only way through is through, though. So on Monday, after the ongoing disaster postponed games for both of L.A.’s NBA teams, they got back to business.
The Clippers proclaimed “L.A. Strong” and pushed around the Miami Heat for a 109-89 victory in front of a crowd of 13,119 in Inglewood. And I had a seat up the road to watch the Lakers operate under the weight of a city at Crypto.com Arena, where they also went through with plans to retire Michael Cooper’s jersey.
The Showtime must go on, I suppose?
The Lakers set out to serve up a good ol’ basketball distraction, but they seemed more distracted, losing 126-103 to the San Antonio Spurs.
And Cooper, the local guy on the dynastic Lakers teams of the 1980s, a five-time NBA champion and recently inducted Hall of Famer who’s given so much to the game, he had his No. 21 raised to the rafters. A real triumph for a world-class defender who grew up right there in the Altadena and Pasadena community where the Eaton Fire has caused so much destruction.
But I’ll tell you, when I arrived at a lifeless L.A. Live a few hours before tipoff, I wondered whether his jersey retirement ceremony, so long coming, was happening too soon. Surely the date was tied to Pat Riley’s presence; Cooper’s coach with the Lakers and who’s the Heat’s team president is in town with his current team and was available to speak on Cooper’s legacy. Still, I wasn’t sure.
But I’m glad Cooper had the floor Monday night of all nights, that he got to get on the mic in what he called a “bittersweet” moment to encourage people to donate to the Red Cross, to pray for our city and to proclaim with his whole chest: “We’re Angelenos, and we gonna build back better!”
Likewise, I was sure we’d get a charged basketball atmosphere. That we’d feel the release of pent-up emotion and that Lakers coach JJ Redick would be exactly right when he talked pregame about what playing a game could mean for a city.
“A group functions best when you draw strength from each other,” said the first-year head coach, whose rental house was among the 1,200 commercial and residential structures destroyed in the Palisades Fire. “And the way my players, my staff, the organization has supported and rallied around me, rallied around the city, loved on my family, there’s real strength in that. And that’s the sort of receiving of strength. Now it’s our job to go give strength, to give hope and joy.”
But the game really did serve up a slice of normalcy. It felt basically like a January Monday against the Spurs.
Like we were watching a team lose its third straight, its defense slipping, its turnovers mounting and its crowd – 18,737 fans, slightly shy of a sellout – starting to file out with more than four minutes left, the game not technically over but feeling like it.
And that’s OK.
It looked, from here, like the Rams were able to tap into a reservoir of emotion in their rousing 27-9 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. After winning in Glendale, Ariz., where the NFC wild-card game had been moved on account of the fires, the Rams said again and again, they were playing for L.A.
In L.A., the Lakers darkened the arena and asked for a moment of silence. And then Gabe Vincent – a relative newcomer without, say, LeBron James’ gravitas – gave an address.
“On behalf of my teammates and organization, our hearts go out to everyone that’s been affected,” Vincent said, wearing the same “Thank You First Responders” shirt all of his teammates were. “Shoutout to the first responders who are putting their lives on the line. It’s important at this time that we come together as a city, as a community, as a family and support those who are in need right now. Go Lakers.”
The crowd was subdued in its response. Maybe because it would’ve felt weird to really cheer. Or maybe because Lakers crowds tend to warm up to the game as it gets going – or, in Monday’s case, until it went off the rails in the third quarter.
Fans who’d stayed in their seats to see Cooper honored at halftime made their delayed concession runs in the third quarter. And by the time they returned, the Spurs – who’d been trailing by 11 early in the third quarter – had harnessed momentum and all but caught up, knocking the Lakers off their fragile axis.
But on this night, fires still burning or starting and stressing everyone out, that was OK.
James – usually so reliable as a spokesman who’ll address serious, bigger-than-basketball issues – was headed to the locker room 10 seconds before the final buzzer, and he was out of the locker room before Anthony Davis was finished telling reporters about how his family has been impacted by the ongoing disaster.
That’s OK too.
Redick stuck around on the court after the game, heading across the floor with Spurs stars Victor Wembanyama and Chris Paul.
The coach explained afterward that the fire took the entirety of his sons’ jersey and autograph collection, a compilation that’s starting anew with jerseys gifted by the Lakers’ Austin Reaves and, after Monday’s game, Wembanyama and Paul.
“Chris called me this afternoon and said, ‘Vic and I are going to go – whether you win or we win – we’re going to go over and give the boys jerseys,’” said Redick, who’s been candid about what he and his family are experiencing, which is so OK. Helpful, I think.
“Again,” he said. “I appreciate all the love.”
If you were drawing up a play for dealing with all this, that’s probably a good place to start.