The Los Angeles Lakers will start their regular season on Tuesday evening in San Francisco versus the Golden State Warriors, the defending NBA champions.
That means it will be ring night for the Warriors, which is always an emotional night and the affirmation of a lifelong goal.
One member of the Lakers, forward Juan Toscano-Anderson, will be getting his world championship ring that night: He played for Golden State last season.
But he made it clear he is living in the present. He said he wants his new team to win the contest more than he wants to get his ring from his former squad.
“Obviously it’s a big night for myself and for Golden State, something that I definitely want to enjoy. But I’m a Laker now, I want to go in there and kick their butts. That’s the ultimate goal is to start off the season on the right foot and go into Golden State, which is a tough place to win. You know, I’ve played many games in Chase, I know how tough it is to win there, I know how their fans are, and they’re an amazing team, so I would like to go in there and get a win, that would be better than the ring, to be honest.”
The Warriors are listed as sizable favorites for the contest. However, every now and then, a defending champion will experience a letdown on ring night and lose, even to a lesser team.
After all, it happened to the Lakers a couple of times during the Kobe Bryant era, as well as during the Showtime era in the 1980s.
