Rookie forward Kyle Kuzma has endeared himself to fans of the Los Angeles Lakers about as rapidly as any player ever could.
How? Well for one, he’s played incredibly for a rookie, averaging 16.1 points per game, good for the second-highest scoring average on the team behind Julius Randle. But Kuzma also has endeared himself by paying respect to the franchise’s incredibly successful past with everything from the way he bites his jersey like to Kobe Bryant, to busting out Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s patented skyhook.
He even wore a retro Nick Van Exel jersey to a recent game. Kuzma’s latest nostalgia-inducing action came off of the floor as well, when he tweeted that he’d like the Lakers to play another game at their old home, The Forum in Inglewood:
Random thought. @Lakers we gotta play one game at the forum next year that would be crazy!
— kuz (@kylekuzma) April 9, 2018
The Forum is a concert venue now, but it’s not impossible the Lakers could play a game there. They did just that in 2009 for a preseason jaunt against the Golden State Warriors.
There is nothing obvious stopping them from doing another one-off game there, something Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson would seemingly be amenable to in order to evoke the nostalgia of his playing days.
With how much reverence the Lakers have shown for their past over the course of this season, from wearing Bryant-inspired black, snakeskin looking jerseys or their Minneapolis throwbacks, to giving Elgin Baylor a statue, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Kuzma’s ‘random thought’ become a reality, especially if he wants to make it happen.
Even if he can’t, Kuzma at least surely won over a few more fans from the older generation by trying.
