Purple & Gold

Devin Williams Mar 30 2019

Growing up in the county of LA is special, well at least it was for me. It seems like the perfect place to live , besides the traffic. You can go swimming at the beach, hop in the car and drive down to snowy mountains, all year long the stars are out in Hollywood, I mean you name it, LA pretty much has it. But one thing LA will always be known for, are the Los Angeles Lakers. Anybody who’s my age grew up spoiled in a sense, because all we know is what winning looks like. Watching the Lakers gave me faith as a kid that not just me, but anyone who tried hard enough can one day become a winner.

You won’t find one of those fake fans over here…NOPE. I’ve been a Laker fan since I’ve came out the wound. So many memories, this blog can’t cover them all. I remember getting picked up on a team after tryouts at Darby Park and we had to pick what jersey number we wanted to wear the same day. It wasn’t even a thought for my best friend and I. He took number 6 because of Eddie Jones and I took number 9 because of Nick Van Exel, my favorite player. As a matter of fact, I remember my dad trying to teach me how to make left handed lay ups and I was so uncomfortable with that I was going to quit. But then I thought to myself, “wait Nick Van Exel is left handed” so then I got it down right away. You know that half spin you see me do in videos? I got that move from Nick Van Exel.

From the Lakers drafting Kobe, to seeing him put up airballs against Utah, to him winning his first championship with Shaq, I was sitting in front of the TV screen for EVERY GAME. You may think I’m exaggerating but I’m not. My dad forced the Lakers on me without even knowing he did it.

When I was born, My dad told me that God told him that I would play basketball. He didn’t know if I’d play in the NBA or not but he knew I would be around the sport. If you know me, that definitely came true. I remember a stack of VHS tapes that my dad had, and each of them had recorded Laker games on there. From the showtime Lakers, to when Van exel, Jones, Shaq, and Kobe were on the same team, he had a lot of them. But they were mainly there just incase we had bible study, a family dinner, or something that would cause us to miss a laker home game on KCAL 9 or Fox Sports net at 5pm, 530pm, or 730pm.

As much as I love my family, we didn’t have family dinners unless it was on Sunday…….I wish we had more of them. My mom would come home and go straight to her room and either chill out or do more work on her computer. She didn’t want anyone in her space while she was working because she couldn’t focus. My dad was done at 530 or so, when he got home, he cooked dinner and went straight to our tv room and turned on basketball. It’s just what life was for me. I’m not complaining because I loved watching hoop. What this was doing the whole time was molding me. I was learning to study film before I even knew it.

This generation of hoop is lucky and unlucky at the same time. You can go on houseofhighlights or bleacher report and get quick highlights. You can go on youtube or the NBA app and watch quick summaries of the games. But the era I was in didn’t have it. You’d either have to watch the full game or watch the quick highlights on ESPN. I watched from jump ball until the last buzzer sounded. It helped me learn flow and what actually happens in these games. It’s benefited me now because I can call good players and bad players so fast….I can also tell you things you need to work on just by watching your film. What some have trouble catching, I can see it instantly. But the main thing the impacted me was Kobe.

When it comes to working hard and chasing success, I’ve seen it all through Kobe Bryant. All of his ups and down, I learned from it. When you see guys grinding on the basketball court, most people don’t know this but Kobe made that popular. Yes, there were other players that worked extremely hard, but he was ready to die for this sport. I saw it every game on both ends, I read it in articles about Kobe, and I even experienced it first hand.

This is sort of a long story, but pretty much Kobe told me to “F*** off” to my face. I was like 8 years old too lol….. But what’s weird is that when he said it, It made me respect his work ethic even more. No man that spends this much time around his craft can be a normal person. I took the good and left out the bad.

All the stuff I saw from Magic, from Shaq and Kobe and all the other winners that came through to LA made me want to become a winner. From all of the championships I won as a kid, 3 on 3 tournaments, high school state championships, all the way to the business I created, all I want to do is win.

But what is winning when you become my age. For me, it’s definitely doing my best and achieving some of my personal goals. Winning is becoming a legend in the eyes of many in my opinion. I’m not afraid to let you know that I want to leave my mark on this world. But it’s also competing with some of my competitors in a way where I don’t have to try and tear down or hate on their business. I love to compete because the Lakers competed. They won so many championships since the day that i was born and it’s something that never will leave me.

I could have came out with these new shorts in any color that I wanted, but I decided to rep the purple and gold. Those colors are the reason why I believe that one day I will become a Legend.