You’re not truly in the dog days of the summer until you start ranking promotional night giveaways.
The Lakers haven’t typically had many giveaway nights during the season, which makes this upcoming season different. Specifically, they’ll be giving away five different bobbleheads throughout the year, including three for former players, along with a couple of other giveaways.
There are a handful of other nights mixed in as well, including Phil Jackson’s statue unveiling at the end of the season as well as LGBTQ+ Pride Night (though I wish they wouldn’t continuously host it during the preseason) and Mental Health Awareness Night.
However, we’re here to rank the goodie giveaways, so let’s look at the seven nights fans can walk away with a freebie.
7. Norm Nixon Bobblehead, Dec.14
The Lakers will have a series of nights this season honoring figures of the franchise’s past, starting with Norm Nixon. He’s an oft-forgotten part of Lakers history, coming just before the Showtime Era. Still, he was a key piece of title-winning teams.
6. Paul Westhead Bobblehead, Jan. 14
The guy before the guy, Westhead, like Nixon, came just before one of the defining eras of the franchise’s history. And like Nixon, it’s nice that the franchise is honoring him.
5. Kurt Rambis Bobblehead, March 17
While Rambis has sort of sullied his reputation with the franchise for some with his role in the front office over the last decade or so, you can’t tell me that a bobblehead with those goggles won’t look extremely funny. It only would have been funnier if they did it in the game against Boston, considering that is the most iconic moment of his career.
In fact, I’ve even heard a former leader of this website is already camped out at Crypto.com Arena waiting to purchase tickets for this game.
4. Lakers x Dodgers Baseball-style Jersey, Nov. 17
Over/under 0.5 of these teams Mark Walter still owns by the time this game rolls around.
3. Austin Reaves Bobblehead, Dec. 27
Are Austin and Luka going to have a debate over whose bobblehead is cooler? Hopefully neither of them is sporting the awful new Nike jerseys for this season.
2. Luka Dončić Scoring Champion Bobblehead, Nov. 1
It’s cool that the team is honoring Luka winning the scoring title last season, but hopefully next year’s bobblehead is for him winning the MVP this season. A small part of me hoped these were being given away when the team played the Mavs, but that would have felt particularly cruel.
1. Lakers 2020 Championship Ring Replica, Jan. 24
I’m already a big fan of replica ring giveaways. I still have one from the 2008-09 team that I found on eBay years and years ago.
But it’s also an incredibly cool touch that they’re doing this the night Anthony Davis — assuming he doesn’t get traded — comes back to Crypto.com Arena. And yes, I’m still sad that team never got a parade.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
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