The World Championship Lakers did it again and won the NBA championship title for the 16th time on Thursday, June 17. Monday June 21, 2010 was the day of the parade and the celebration was big. I had never thought of going to any parade to celebrate a team’s victory until the victory on Thursday nights. My son is a huge Lakers fan and there is no way we are going to miss the parade as we currently live steps away from USC which is where the parade route ends. The parade was supposed to start at 11 am and since we were at the end of the route, it was after noon before the Laker franchise made it to our end of Figueroa from the Staple Center.
Parade turnout was light for what you’d expect at Figueroa and Jefferson, but as the afternoon wore on, the crowd grew denser and denser. There where the people standing on top of the bus stop canopy and the people sitting on top of the traffic light also signal. Anywhere there was a slightly raised space, people hung from it. LAPD was there with the full force of it, yet to my dismay they did absolutely nothing about the large amount of marijuana being smoked by groups of adult men, even when it was on their faces and the faces of children. Most people were pretty cool and calm in the parade, but of course there were a few troublemakers who went out of their way to make everyone else miserable as long as they were comfortable. Luckily most of the people there were much better behaved.
We left home for the parade at ten am, walked across the USC campus and were at the corner of Figueroa and Jefferson ten minutes later and the crowd was packed, as far as I could see, with Lakers fans in jerseys , hats, Lakers pants, capes… and I did say capes because there was a man dressed as superman or more accurately Super Lakerman. There was a lone Boston Celtics fan who was having a pretty rough time with the entire crowd jeering at him, “BOSON SUCKS!” repeatedly, but I doubt he was really a true Boston fan since he was a Laker Parade. The crowd tried a lazy wave a few times, but it didn’t seem to work no matter how many times I tried, but the crowd was having a lot of fun anyway. A blonde lady in her Lakers jersey and cutoff jean shorts stood atop the bus stop and danced for the crowd. It was a fun day and aside from a few overboard fans, the parade was fun and safe for everyone. Street vendors kept fans hydrated with plenty of water, and Gatorade vendors. If you were a daring person, you could buy a $4.00 bacon-wrapped hot dog that was being cooked on the street on what appeared to be a makeshift open griddle.
Finally, shortly after noon, the Lakers girls start arriving in a double-decker bus and fire trucks. After the Laker girls passed the Lakers with their family, friends, coaches and other staff on the buses and engines were right behind them. It was hard to see with so many people there and a lot of people had their kids on their shoulders so the view wasn’t great if you were on flat ground but if you had a video camera like us and several others then you just He held it up, hit record, zoomed in, and watched the parade from his viewfinder. As soon as Kobe Bryant was seen by the crowd holding the trophy up, the crown began to sing MVP! MVP! MVP! The energy was magnificent and everyone was happy. Derek Fisher stood in front of Kobe and had his left hand in the air and helped raise a finger to tell us yes, the Lakers are number one once again. The actual parade was very short once it arrived and didn’t seem to last more than ten minutes, but it was worth the wait for many of us fans.