Lakers To Return to Forum in Exhibition Game

The Lakers haven’t played at the Forum in Inglewood since 1999 but will be returning in an exhibition game against Golden State, for the franchise’s 50th year in L.A. Lakers owner Jerry Buss has wanted to return to the Forum for some time now, but have had some diffuculty doing so. Reports the L.A. Times, “The Lakers have had to work overtime to get the building in game shape. The gradually deteriorating arena is owned by Faithful Central Bible Church, which purchased it for $22.5 million in December 2000 and has never had to put on a full-scale basketball production.”

Tim Harris, senior vice president of business operations for the Lakers said of the work that went into planning the exhibition game, “Ever since we left the Forum, people have been asking us if and when we’re going to return. It doesn’t take much to understand why the Forum is so important … given the success and all the memories we had there.” Kobe Byrant and Derek Fisher are the only players on the Lakers’ current roster who played at the Forum, with Kobe recalling, “We got our [behinds] kicked in that building. The ‘Showtime’ Lakers had a great time, though our home is Staples Center.” Bryant continued to say, “There’s so much history and tradition. It’ll be good to see what it looks like. That’s where it all started [for me]. The locker, the smell of it, the orange seats, it’ll be cool to get back there.”

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Posted in General on October 9, 2009

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