Wenyen Gabriel knows full well what the highs and lows look like as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Gabriel was a late add to the roster last year where he saw the Lakers stumble toward the finish line and miss the playoffs. The 2022-23 campaign looked much like the same until the trade deadline came and gave Los Angeles some much-needed reinforcements.
The big man reflected on the two seasons and noted the difference in spirit between the two squads. “Oh man, this has been a journey like you said lots of ups and downs. When I first came here, one thing was that there was not a lot of hope at all and that was something that I’ve seen about the spirit of the team last year. Like, we didn’t have much hope in the beginning of this season starting 2-10 there wasn’t much hope.
“But just being able to weather through the storm with my brothers was something that was really appreciated once we got to the Play-In and the second half of the season where we really made a good stretch and just to have that belief and have that feeling that we could win, we could do something special, and have everybody buy in. There was a feeling that you really appreciated as a player. That’s what everyone looks for when they say they want to play on a contender and play for something meaningful and I think that I got that this year and that was something that we hope to build on.”
After the trade deadline, James had a noticeable spark back in his game and Gabriel revealed that the King considered the team a championship contender soon after.
“They brought in a group of people that the energy kind of meshed as well. The skill sets aligned on the court which the pieces made more sense over there, so that obviously helped us. But off the floor we came a lot closer as a team. We hung out more, I mean I had some friends that came in. Like even Vando, I already knew Vando but like everybody we’re close in age as well too and it was something that where having that continuity off the court and on the court it was…I don’t know how it grew so fast as it did. It was kind of a surprise to all of us, but when you start winning games like that it was like momentum shift and we kind of rode that wave right there.
“And then we really hit a point where we really believed in how good we could be. Even Bron would tell us in the locker room like we have the makings of a championship contender team. And he said I’ve been on a team and I’ve seen it and we got what it takes and we kind of believed when he was speaking there. And then us going out there, even when Bron wasn’t playing he was complimenting us and he was even more so engaged in how we were as a team in that second half. He was excited to come back, he was excited to about what we had working on and we all had that type of excitement and we was working toward something so that feeling right there is what we’re looking for.”
The front office has the ability to bring back most of the roster, so there’s no reason why the Lakers shouldn’t be able to build on this strong end to the year and hopefully chase a title again.
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