Lakers' In-Season Tournament Banner: NBA's Involvement Revealed

At the start of December of 2023, the Los Angeles Lakers made history becoming the first-ever team to win the In-Season Tournament and become the champions of the new NBA competition.

Early reports had the team not thinking of hanging a banner if they were to become champions, once they won it things changed and that made many fans speculate if the NBA had anything to do with that Lakers front office "change of heart" decision regarding hanging a banner.

The league wants the In-Season Tournament to carry weight almost at the level of the regular NBA championship as a way of validating the unique concept in American sports. And if the Lakers — one of the league’s premier franchises — had won it all in the first year, then opted not to hang a banner, it could have been a huge hit to the tournament’s credibility.

It appears the Lakers did feel some pushback from the NBA on their hesitancy to hang an In-Season Tournament banner before ultimately deciding to display one in the rafters at Crypto.com Arena.

The Lakers received pressure from the NBA to hang an IST banner

With information via Chris Haynes on the "This League UNCUT" podcast: “I wasn’t sure they would do it but I know the league really wanted any team who won the In-Season Tournament, they wanted the team to do something to kind of say that this is a big deal. I know that the Lakers had a little bit of pressure. I don’t know to what extent but I know the Lakers felt a little bit of pressure to do something.”