Lakers give rookie Brandon Ingram Kobe Bryant's locker
No. 2 pick faces burden of legend's legacy.
By
Matt Moore
•
2 min read
The Lakers are opening a new era. Kobe Bryant is gone. The team believes it has the young core that will include at least one new star to lead them forward and back to the championship contender they feel they should be every year, given their storied history. Part of that is making the transition from the former era to the new.
They couldn't really just glass off Bryant's locker, his jersey hanging like it was Robin's costume in "Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice," which means someone has to take that locker. Did they give it to some random veteran to fill the gap and avoid expectations? Nope. They slotted the No. 2 overall pick, Brandon Ingram into that spot, and he knows what it means.
Luke Walton spotted Brandon Ingram sitting in the back corner of the Lakers locker room and asked him if he knew who his new locker used to belong to.
"He said someone told him," Walton said.
"Somebody different is here after 20 years," Ingram said. "We talk about a new era, this is definitely a new era for our guys to start a new journey."
Ingram already occupies Bryant's old locker at the team's El Segundo practice facility, an honor which this summer he called "good pressure" and "motivation."
That the theme carried over to Staples, he said, was only a further sign that he has "big shoes to fill."
"I think it's a message that they're looking for somebody to step it up," Ingram said, after scoring six points in Friday's loss. "Of course, with the guys we have, it's a lot only of guys that can step up and make up and make plays for other players."
But only one was asked to fill the literal void left by Bryant's retirement.
So on one hand, it's just a locker. There are no magical properties, and it's not as though Ingram, being the No. 2 pick drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers did not face expectations coming in. But it is notable that the Lakers are being open with these expectations, that they want him to feel the shadow of Bryant over him. It would be one thing to say "We just gave him the locker," and be done with it. But entering it as "You know whose locker this is, right?" is putting the idea in his head.
And Ingram is accepting it as such.
What's just as interesting is that there is an open competition for new head of the Lakers. None will lead like Bryant, for better or worse, each will have their own triumphs and failures. It could be D'Angelo Russell, or Ingram, or (less likely) Julius Randle. The toughest challenge will be dealing with the expectations of mindset. Bryant was so singularly driven, so demanding, so determined in his approach that it did help the rest of the team in some respects.
For now, it's just a locker; just a stall. But everything that comes with it is something Ingram will be faced with. We don't know enough about him to know how that will work out, but the fun part is watching it unfold.
Ingram was 2 for 8 for six points with two rebounds and two assists in Friday night's loss to the Nuggets in preseason action.
