Comedian Chris Trew is a Pelicans superfan who has a single season ticket directly behind the visitors’ bench inside New Orleans’ Smoothie King Center, where he chats with and listens to the opposing team. The Pelicans’ opponent in this column: the Los Angeles Lakers who visited the Smoothie King Center on November 13th and are visiting again tonight.
The “Baby” Lakers came into New Orleans to face off against an even younger Pelicans team (though to my knowledge nobody calls them the “Infant Pelicans”) in a Smoothie King Center that was missing its usual splash of purple and gold which I suppose we can call “the Kobe effect.” Regardless, was there still a significant Laker fan contingent in the building? Yes. Where they more excited to be at the Arena than Pelicans fans? In many cases, yeah. Did the Pelicans lose? Yes, and badly. Some observations:
— Metta World Peace didn’t suit up, but the veteran took some jumpers before the game started. A fan made his way near the bench and asked me what the protocol was for getting pictures taken with players. In my experience, it’s a total crapshoot — some guys can’t believe you had the audacity to come over and interrupt their routine, some guys seem to really revel in the opportunity to mingle with their fans. Some assistant coaches appear to really love swinging their authority around via shutting down photo ops while some want to chat with you about how much they love a particular player.
Metta World Peace took the picture with the fan and even invited him to walk on the court (not typical). After the photo, player development coach and former hype man Mark Madsen stuck around to explain to myself and Metta’s fan about how good of a guy World Peace is. It was sweet but a tad on the excessive side, though I’m happy Coach Madsen loves World Peace so much and it’s neat that he’s still waving towels on the bench, albeit metaphorically.
— For what it’s worth, I’ve never seen so much game tape watched on the bench as I saw from the Lakers. During shootaround, these two film freaks broke down a recent game against the Kings while other players took shots and stretched. You would think I could take a picture like this every game of the season but it’s the first time I’ve seen it.
— Luke Walton is a bigger bro than you think he is. His cuss word-to-compliment ratio is the highest on the team, barely edging out Timothy Mozgov (who, by the way, refused to tell me what he dressed up as for Halloween, which is disappointing because you know that dude went as a really life-like Frankenstein). Walton complains about bad foul calls in a way that causes his assistants to avoid making eye contact with him.
— The player having the most fun on the bench was Larry Nance, Jr. During an early timeout the Smoothie King Center was blasting “God Bless America” in support of Veterans Day, causing Nance to wrap his arms around his neighbors to the left and right and force-swaying them back and forth while he belted out the chorus.
Larry might be the nerd on the squad, but he seems like he doesn’t care. More support for this theory came in the fourth when he went solo on a fast break and opted for a marshmallow toilet tissue cappuccino foam soft dunk, causing the bench to erupt in disappointment. Coach Walton silently contributed to the roasting by covering his smile in response to the decision to not go hard.
— For as much bravado as D’Angelo Russell carries with him during the game, he was very afraid of loose balls bonking his head during warm-ups. He flinched often and was irritated when the ball boy consistently passed on passing him the ball. Russell was also the most towel-waving of the bench, frequently demonstrating the “whip” technique, picking the cloth up at a medium pace then striking it down with force. The most effective towel maneuver in my humble opinion.
— Los Angeles was relentless when it came to New Orleans shooting airballs of which, unfortunately for the home crowd, there was several. They really adored mocking each and every one of them, most notably one from Terrence Jones in the third quarter — Jones seemed visibly uncomfortable with the level of mockery he was getting, led by Metta World Peace. The Pels rookie Buddy Hield also frequently let his guard down, allowing his eyes to wander towards members of the Lakers bench who were throwing words at him.
The best players are either impossible to distract or, at the very least, they never let you know that they can hear them.
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— For reasons I was unable to uncover, Lou Williams draped his arms around a couple of guys on the bench (including Brandon Ingram who is longer, skinnier, and possibly higher than you think he is) and instructed them to not shake hands with anyone. “No handshakes, no good games, nothing. End of the game, we head to the back.” Lou followed through on this, sprinting to the locker room after the blowout victory. He was the only one who did so, though.
Possible theories: Sweet Lou is allergic to handshakes or Sweet Lou was in a rush to get to the after party in the French Quarter or Sweet Lou was hungry and since the Lakers apparently always have Raising Cane’s Chicken waiting for them in the locker room he was being an impatient Caniac.
