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NBA Champion Ron Harper Criticizes Lakers For Hanging In-Season Tournament Banner

Ron Harper, who won two titles with the Los Angeles Lakers, was upset about raising In-Season Tournament at Staples Center

Shandel Richardson

NBA Champion Ron Harper Criticizes Lakers For Hanging In-Season Tournament Banner
NBA Champion Ron Harper Criticizes Lakers For Hanging In-Season Tournament Banner /
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Former NBA player Ron Harper knows all about winning championships. 

He won five during his playing career, including three with the Michael Jordan-led and Scottie Pippen Chicago Bulls in the 1990s and two with the Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal Los Angeles Lakers. So you can imagine his feelings when the Lakers raised their banner for winning the league's first In-Season Tournament title. 

That's right, the banner now stands next to the Lakers' other 17 titles at Staples Center. Harper took to social media to express his disappointment. 

He wrote, "Embarrassing to all of those NBA finals championships banners… WOW." 

The Lakers won the In-Season Tournament on the backs of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. James went far as saying as the competition feeling like the NCAA Tournament. He never had that experience because he bypassed college to enter the NBA draft. 

Harper seemed to take offense of anyone comparing the In-Season Tournament to an actual championship. After receiving minimal success with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Clippers at the beginning of his career, Harper got a taste of winning with the Bulls and Lakers. 

He ended his 16-year career in 2001, finishing with 13,910 points, 4,309 rebounds and 3,915 assists. He was often called a poor's man Jordan before the two later became teammates. 

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Shandel Richardson is the Publisher of Back In The Day NBA. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

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Shandel Richardson
SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.  He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star.  TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com

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