Hollywood celebs generally like and follow the teams that have been successful, not a team that has Ja Morant – a 6’3, 22-year-old leading a team of youngsters.
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The Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association have a second to none celebrity following. Mostly due to its geographical location, the LA team has no competition from its across the town rivals the LA Clippers.
Only the New York Knicks are a franchise that comes close to that kind of famous fan following. But still, they just would never match the courtside lineup in LA has had over the years and still consistently features Hollywood legends.
Celebrity Laker fan Jack Nicholson was sitting courtside for this Clippers home game, despite the Lakers also playing in Los Angeles that evening.
When the Clippers arrived in L.A. in ’84, Jack also had Clippers season tickets at the L.A. Sports Arena. pic.twitter.com/4nZVuZmUet https://t.co/aakTkf95Ex
— NBA Cobwebs (@NBACobwebs) November 30, 2021
Jack Nicholson, Adam Sandler, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Denzel Washington to name some of them, plus Hip Hop artists like Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube must be enough to give you a rough idea of what we are talking about.
Talking about Snoop, the legendary rapper has been a prominent Lakers fan since he was a kid. The man has seen all the ups and downs with the Showtime Lakers as a teenager, then the Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal era as a star on the West Coast, and now the LeBron James era as a rap GOAT.
The man strictly hates and is never hesitant to unload on anyone not playing for his Lakers but sometimes he has a secret admiration for the players who can really ball even though they aren’t playing for the Lakers.
Snoop Dogg sensed 2-year ago that Ja Morant will be a perennial All-Star with the heart he has for the game
Apart from Michael Jordan, you might never have heard Snoopy utter anything good about a basketball player who didn’t play for the Lakers. That’s how seriously the “Drop it Like it’s Hot” rapper rocks with his team.
But in his appearance on former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson’s podcast All The Smoke (talking about a match made in heaven, the show had to have Snoop the way it’s named), he answered a question about which players he likes outside of LA. Give it a listen yourself.
Ja Morant, the 22-year-old from Memphis has already proven himself to be one of the league’s best players this season by leading his team to finish with the second-best record and giving a tough fight to the Warriors in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals before getting injured with series with just 1 game down to Stephen Curry and Co after Game 3.
Had the first time All-Star stayed fit who knows where the series would have gone, but the Dubs went through Grizzlies 4-2 and are now playing the NBA Finals for the 6th time in 8 years.
However, Snoopy praising Ja’s heart 2 years before he showed the world his worth just shows his eye for the talent and understanding of the game like only a few others.