Hi this is Tania Ganguli, Lakers beat writer for the L.A. Times, here with your weekly newsletter. We thought we'd get you this week's newsletter a little earlier in the day for a little reading material before the tournament games get going.
O'Neal told a great story about a star-studded party he attended that taught him he'd "rather have L.A. respect than damn Minnesota respect." Fisher pointed to L.A.'s diversity and how important that was to him as a player. He felt that would also be important to James, who thinks of himself more broadly than as just an athlete.