Taylor Swift banner enraged NBA teams and ended up in storage due to heckling
Kobe Bryant brought five NBA Championships to Staples Center after 20 brilliant seasons, but he also gifted the building a special banner too.
The Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers may sell out their venue on most nights, but pop star Taylor Swift managed to sell out 16 straight shows at Staples Center back in August 2015. It was an impressive accomplishment, one that was acknowledged by Bryant himself.
Bryant made a guest appearance during one of Swift's shows, and presented her with an Championship-style banner which read: "Taylor Swift most sold out performances." The fans inside the venue loved it and Swift was honoured, but the teams that share Crypto.com Arena (formerly known as Staples Center) weren't as impressed.
The venue is shared by the Lakers, Clippers and NHL team Los Angeles Kings, and the banner became a new attraction within the building. But in 2020 it was no longer on display, and it's unlikely it'll ever be hung inside Staples Center again.
The banner was allegedly taken down so that the Lakers could display their new Championship banner which was earned in the 2020-21 season. The NBA bubble season remains the last time that the Lakers won the Championship, and their success still hangs where Swift's banner once was.
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However, there's more to the story as Los Angeles reporter Arash Markazi questioned why the banner had been removed. "We have the banner here," Crypto.com Arena president Lee Zeidman told The Messenger.
"It’s folded up and locked away in a room here at the arena where we store other things." Banners often get changed so this may not seem like a big deal, but it appears that the Clippers took the taunting to heart as fans joked that Swift had more Championship banners than them.
The Clippers are still holding out for an NBA titleThe Clippers have never won the NBA, and decided to remove the banner and avoid further shame from travelling fans. Initially the banner was just covered up by large photos of star players, something both the Clippers and the Kings did before games.
But the report states that even the Lakers grew frustrated with it, as the banner was larger than any of their genuine NBA Championship honours. A group decision was made to remove the banner completely, although there are plans to showcase it in the future.
The Clippers are set to relocate, and Crypto.com Arena is also being renovated. "We are going to look for a place to display it on the main concourse," Zeidman added. "We want to make it a photo-op where fans can take a picture with it.
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