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More than 60 years ago, the Minneapolis Lakers franchise moved to Los Angeles.
A run of excellence here in the early NBA, that included five of the first six championships, gave way, eventually, to the Showtime Lakers and 12 more NBA titles in Los Angeles.
And now, in 2023, the Lakers have again moved a team (or at least part of one) from Minneapolis to Los Angeles.
The three-team deal before last week's trade deadline sent D'Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt to the Lakers.
All three were important players for the Timberwolves a season ago when they made the playoffs for just the second time since 2004. But Vanderbilt and Beasley were included in the offseason Rudy Gobert blockbuster with Utah — the other team in last week's three-team deal — and Russell had been the subject of trade rumors for several months before finally being traded.
We've focused here a good deal on the key player coming into the Wolves as part of the deadline trade — Mike Conley Jr. — and on Thursday's Daily Delivery podcast the fit between Conley and Gobert was a primary subject.
But there was also a key development on the Lakers side of the deal Wednesday that we should note.
In a 120-102 win over the Pelicans, the Lakers' final game before the All-Star break, all three former Wolves were in the starting lineup.
They were joined by LeBron James, who not only played for the first time since the trade deadline (sore left foot and ankle), but also talked about the team's trade additions for the first time. Here was James ...
On Russell: "I know D-Lo is a really good, shifty point guard. ... Very crafty. Very deceiving with his quickness."
On Beasley, who LeBron compared to J.R. Smith: "A guy, whenever he's on the floor, no matter if he's making it or not, you have to respect him because of his ability to shoot the ball."
On Vanderbilt: "Vando is a Swiss Army knife. He can do a little bit of everything."
Those scouting reports are spot-on, which shouldn't be a surprise, but it struck me as a little jarring to hear the best player of this generation talking so casually and intimately about players who were so recently on the Wolves.
Vando? Can he really say that?
More important than what is said, of course, is what is done on the court. The Lakers are 2-1 since the new players arrived, with LeBron declaring, "I feel really good about what we have brewing."
The Lakers (27-32) are 13th in the West right now, but they're still part of a tight pack. Case in point: They're only six games out of third, with plenty of teams they can catch and/or pass to at least reach the top-10 and a play-in berth.
The Wolves (31-29) are tied for sixth, but again the final stretch will tell all. The Wolves and Lakers meet twice before the season ends — at the start of March in L.A. and at the end of March in Minneapolis.
And we'll find out soon enough whether the current or former Wolves steal the show.
