NBA Teams Tell Los Angeles Lakers They're Embarrassing Themselves

[news]

Sometimes, when your friends are embarrassing themselves, the most important thing you can do is tell the truth.

So it was with the NBA and the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, after the team failed once again to nab a marquee free agent, this time LaMarcus Aldridge. NBA teams complained to the league that the Lakers had created a rather sad #LAtoLA hashtag -- get it? -- in an attempt to lure Aldridge to the team.

You know that feeling where you know you’ve done something you're not especially proud of, just hoping none of your buddies saw? Yeah, that just happened to the Lakers. The #LAtoLA tweets were deleted shortly after the complaint.

Per league source, Lakers' #LAtoLA tweets weren't deleted out of sheepishness, but rather by NBA request after other teams complained
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) July 2, 2015

Lakers, per same league source, cleared the #LAtoLA tweet plan with NBA legal dept beforehand. But still honored request to delete them.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) July 2, 2015

Some might see the decision by outside teams to complain about the hashtag as a sign they feared it could actually sway a free agent. To that we ask: Are you kidding? The Lakers are sick, and the #LAtoLA hashtag was nothing more than a cry for help.

It really was sad to watch the Lakers, a team who used to have some goddamned pride, stoop to relying on Adam Levine wearing a fake LaMarcus Aldridge Lakers jersey while screaming or singing or whatever the hell is going on in the photo below. (This photo was originally tweeted out by the Lakers along with the text “Lakers fans everywhere screaming #LAtoLA.” No, they were not.)

Singer @adamlevine is joining the cause for the @Lakers' recruitment of @aldridge_12... pic.twitter.com/izJaVmgXoS
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) July 1, 2015

Also, there was what can only be described as some Laker-related fan fiction.

Come on @aldridge_12 sign with the @Lakers #LAtoLA pic.twitter.com/VW8gO7OYtu
— ?Chris July 26th ?? (@LASparksFan30) July 1, 2015

There were more #LAtoLA tweets, but we’ll just let you dig through them on your own time. The main thing to remember is that the Lakers, who are the one team with a legacy so great they shouldn’t need to rely on gimmicks, have now made said gimmicks an official part of their recruiting or resigning campaigns. Seriously, remember when they created those embarrassing billboards for Dwight Howard, only to watch him ditch town for the Houston Rockets?

This whole #LAtoLA pitch from my @Lakers is reminding me of the last time we tried something similar... pic.twitter.com/AzPLUHjjdO
— Faryar Borhani (@FaryarB) July 1, 2015

You’re the Los Angeles Lakers. Stop this madness. No gimmicks. Just act cool. Can you just do that for a few moments out of the year? Please?

Lakers presentations be like: pic.twitter.com/o8mG2ja1CY
— Triangle Offense (@Tri_Offense) July 1, 2015

Ugh, god. Never mind. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











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