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STAPLES Center Gets Makeover

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While the two-time defending champs underwent a mini makeover this summer by adding five new roster players, their home for the past 11 years—STAPLES Center—also made some much-needed cosmetic changes this past off-season. Today, the arena officially unveils their new, state-of-the-art 4HD jumbotron system, which should come as a welcome change for those of us who attend games and have been forced to watch replays on a low-quality screen not unlike the ancient TV at my grandma’s house.

The new scoreboard now has eight screens for you to watch Bynum dunking, Kobe fading away and Fisher draining dagger threes—a major improvement from the previous version. Sasha Vujacic and the Clippers’ Craig Smith were even on-hand to introduce a preview of the fancy new digs. For all the hoops fans out there who double as techies, you can read up on the specs in the official release.

I remember watching Game 7 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals against the Kings on the jumbotron with about 19,000 other rabid fans and that was long before the days of 3D, HD and whatever else they’re coming up with now. As the premiere franchise in the NBA, the Lakers in-arena experience deserves to be the best too.

Watch as Sasha—in his typical dramatic fashion—presses the magic button to showcase the scoreboard in-action for the first time:


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Comments

  1. Hopefully, this will be the most Sasha-centic clip we’ll see until at least the all-star break; at that point, Sasha can take his ‘button pressing skills’ to South Beach or to whichever other team would benefit most from a Slovenian salary dump.

    The guy makes me long for Joe Crispen.

  2. Cool, I guess. But Staples isn’t really for basketball people, but for entertainment consumers. The endless moving ads, the loud music/noise, the pointless luxury boxes (from a basketball fan’s perspective), even the visually dominant “TV” that detracts from the action of that live, sweaty, gym-conversation heavy, basketball stuff on the floor. From a marketing/ticketing perspective, it’s probably great market-current stuff, and the Busses will probably keep rakin’ it in. But . . . um, well, ya know . . . I still miss the Forum.

  4. They were using that scoreboard for the boxing event at Staples Center last Saturday. It looked nice.

  5. I agree with you DonFord.
    I was watching a Lakers Classic this weekend (1988 NBA Finals Game 7 vs. Detroit) and I realized that I miss the Forum.
    I remember venturing from my cheap seats (which had the equivalent view of today’s Premier Seats) and walking around the inner concourse to steal a better view.
    The Staples Center is a beautiful modern arena which undoubtedly draws more $$$, but the Forum was a better sports venue.

  6. I love Staples center, but being 1 of 17505 as a teenager is something that I’ll truly cherish. And also because during my very first live game, the Lakers beat the Supersonics!

  7. I loved the Fabulous Forum. The House the Jack built and Jerry bought. I was 1 of 17,505 many times. My first game was in 1974-75 team that beat Golden State that night. I remember Elmore Smith being the C for the Lakers. Working for the Lakers team doctors in my year after college, I enjoyed the confines of the Laker Club, a smoke filled, velvet laiden bar circa 70-80’s. It was really a blast hanging out with Lakers at LMU and at the Fabulous Forum. Now, it is NBATV and ESPN! Go Lakers 3-Peat!!!

  9. That is an impressive piece of technology. Too bad most people won’t ever understand just how great the achievement of building something like that is.

  12. Neat stuff, really.

    Really though, I’m more interested in the specs of the watch Kobe is promoting, since I can’t imagine myself ever considering to purchase a 4HD display that large 😉

  15. Re: Sasha – belated kudos to him for getting rid of that pathetic hair style circa 2008. It’s probably the biggest reason the Lakers fell to the Celtics that year.

  16. My sources tell me that AEG actually wanted Andrew Bynum to press the button, but he wasn’t cleared for ‘moderate digital stress’ by his physicians. The good news is that, if everything goes according to plan, he hopes to be ready to push a button by opening night.

  17. You know what struck me most about this video? Craig Smith, a bruising PF for the Clips that gave the Lakers a lot of problems last season looks an inch shorter than Sasha. I mean, wow. The Rhino isn’t even as tall as the Machine but he plays PF in the NBA.