Actress Brenda Song, of Netflix’s Running Point fame, is a massive fan of the Los Angeles Lakers. Her love for the team began when NBA legend Kobe Bryant entered the league as the #13 overall pick at the 1996 NBA Draft. Growing up in a Sacramento suburb — the home of the Kings — before moving to LA at six, the “Royalty” could probably cut the Californian some slack for repping the Purple and Gold.
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Song revealed she is a “psychotic” basketball and Lakers fan during her appearance on the Mythical Kitchen YouTube show. While her love for the Lakers pitted her against her Kings-supporting family, it has also given Song some perks. In 2009, it helped her cop a Championship ring.
When host Josh Scherer interjected that Song deserved a few Championship rings herself for her religious support of Kobe and the Lakers, she revealed that she indeed had the bling to back her up. All thanks to her inadvertent connection to Lakers owner Jeannie Buss.
Buss’ sister-in-law used to take her children to watch the live recordings of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, a Disney Channel comedy that Song starred in from 2005 to 2008. Over time, she and Song grew close, even starting to trade tickets.
“Jeannie Buss’s sister-in-law used to bring her kids to the show a lot. And she saw how big a fan I was of the team. So when in 2009, they offered me the team ring — I like to call it the ring Kobe won — I was like ‘of course’! And I bought it. It has my name on it,” shared the 36-year-old actress.
Song described it as the “ring Kobe won” because the NBA legend managed to average 32.4 points and 7.4 assists during the championship series. He was also the first since Michael Jordan to average 30 points, five rebounds, and five assists in a team that would win the Finals.
She defines the ring as her “claim to fame” because it represents the “house Kobe built.”
Her passion for the team also helped her land a role in the Netflix series Running Point, in which she portrays a character named Ali Lee, the Chief of Staff for the Los Angeles Waves. Buss is the executive producer of the show.
However, there was a time when the actress wasn’t such a huge Lakers fan.
Song grew up a Chicago Bulls fan
The Last Showgirl actress grew up watching Jordan because her dad and brothers were Chicago Bulls fans. Her interest changed, though, with Kobe’s induction into the league. He was selected by the Charlotte Hornets and immediately traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, with Vlade Divac going the other way.
That move almost collapsed as the center initially rejected the move, but thankfully for Song, Kobe arrived in Los Angeles and gave her a new team to support — one which pitted her against her family. Especially in the throes of the early 2000s rivalry between the Kings and her Lakers.
She recalled Game 7 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals and how the Lakers’ win sent her to the hospital because she was hyperventilating due to the excitement.
“At the hospital, I was literally trying to make myself throw up so I could watch the press conference, and they had to turn off the TVs in the hospital,” Song recounted.
That final game of that series was a tense, anxiety-filled battle. The lead changed 19 times throughout, and the score was tied on 16 occasions, even sending the contest into double overtime before the Lakers won 112-106.
