Lakers News: Insider Ponders Why LA Would Raise Semi-Meaningless IST Banner To Rafters

Did the Lakers make the correct decision?

When the NBA announced the plans for its inaugural In-Season Tournament this season, it was met with the thought that players may not take the games seriously. But quickly into the newly established event, the opposite had happened.

Players said that it felt like a playoff atmosphere, due to the stakes in the games. Especially after the group play, when the games were one-game knockouts, everything was at stake.

But your Los Angeles Lakers said that if they won the tournament, they wouldn't raise a championship banner. However, that was quickly turned around once they actually did win. And it sure appears it was the league pressuring the team to do so.

"I underestimated the persuasion of Adam Silver and others in the NBA hierarchy. The league really wants this concept to take hold – you can expect a catchier name, I suspect, and likely one with a tie-in to one of the league’s commercial partners – and so I guess it would be bad form for the first winner to treat it as a lesser accomplishment."

Per Jim Alexander of The Orange County Register

The Lakers' policy of not hanging anything that isn't a championship is still intact with this banner raise. The In-Season Tournament title is technically a title, even if it's a smaller one.

The team plans to just add a year onto the banner if the franchise were to win the tournament in future years. And this seems more than reasonable, considering what the title is.

LA dominated in their games within the tournament, and there is nothing to take away from winning the first-ever event. So, people can make fun of them all they want, but it won't change the outcome of who won the games.