El Segundo, Calif. — The last time the Lakers’ practice facility was close to being as crowded as it was Wednesday—the team’s first public practice since Kobe Bryant’s death—was Media Day, when the organization was filled with excitement and promise before the start of what’s become, in terms of the on-court product, a wildly successful season. The emotions were a little different this time, as a horde of media from around the world waited for the Lakers’ first public comments since Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash.
The mood was somewhere between somber and angsty.