If you think it's hard to shake off a century's worth of baseball futility, just try to break away from decades of basketball success.
The Los Angeles Lakers, NBA royalty, had always been the opposite of the Chicago Cubs. That once-pleasant distinction is now their problem, the challenge of shedding the trappings of that rich history when that's precisely what they need to do to morph into a contending team once again.
So even as general manager Mitch Kupchak sat in a room in Lakers headquarters and proclaimed "It's all new" with this 2016-17 edition of the team, on the wall behind him were framed pictures of Kobe Bryant, James Worthy, Jerry Buss with Magic Johnson, and Jerry West.