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“We got a long way to go to get to Golden State,” James said of the dynastic Warriors, who have foiled James’ championship hopes three of the past four years, including the last two.
The Warriors? The Lakers may have a ways to get to the Nuggets, a rising team that finished one slot out of the Western Conference playoffs last season. They fell to Denver, 124-107, on Sunday.
Fans, however, have let optimism flow, for now. This first preseason game was big enough that the longtime San Diego Union-Tribune sports columnist Nick Canepa felt the need to remind readers that this was not the biggest sports event in the city’s history. Or was it?
San Diego has hosted hundreds of N.F.L. games, including three Super Bowls, though the Chargers are now in Los Angeles. The Padres have brought the World Series here, twice, hard as it may be to imagine. Muhammad Ali fought Ken Norton in San Diego.
And the old arena itself, Valley View Casino Center, used to be the home of the N.B.A.’s Clippers. It now mostly hosts minor-league hockey, indoor soccer and lacrosse. But it was also the site of the 1975 Final Four, where John Wooden coached his last game for U.C.L.A. in a championship victory.
Yet, LeBron.
The arena’s concourse is lined with life-size photographs depicting the building’s famous sporting events and concerts, Bob Dylan to Rihanna. There was a new poster, too: LeBron James’s Los Angeles Lakers Debut. Eight hours before tipoff, ticket prices on the online secondary market ranged from $150 to $489.
The Lakers and James play their first exhibition game at Staples Center, the team’s home floor in Los Angeles, on Tuesday, also against the Nuggets. The Lakers begin the regular season in Portland on Oct. 18.
By then, it might feel closer to normal to see James in a Lakers uniform. The question is if and when it will ever feel right.