The Clippers found themselves in a puzzling situation involving Taylor Swift’s championship banner.
Back in 2020, sharp-eyed Los Angeles sports reporter Arash Markazi noticed that a championship banner presented to Swift by the late Lakers legend Kobe Bryant had mysteriously disappeared from the rafters of Crypto.com Arena, which serves as the home for the Lakers, Clippers, and NHL’s Kings.
Markazi decided to investigate the case of the missing banner and recently uncovered that it was in storage, as reported by The Messenger.
Lee Zeidman, the president of Crypto.com Arena, revealed, “We have the banner here. It’s folded up and locked away in a room here at the arena where we store other things.”
This banner was given to Swift by Bryant in August 2015 to commemorate her 16 sold-out shows at the Staples Center.
However, the Clippers and Kings, who share the arena with the Lakers, weren’t particularly enthusiastic Swift fans and apparently took steps to conceal the banner.
“Clippers fans quickly grew tired of jokes that Swift had more championship banners (1) than the Clippers (0). The Clippers initially covered up the banner along with the entire west rafters with giant portraits of their players. Before the start of the 2019-2020 season, the Kings followed suit,” The Messenger reported.
Lakers fans were also not pleased that the banner overshadowed the franchise’s championship banners.
Despite this, Zeidman hinted that the banner might make a return, likely when the Clippers move to their new arena, the Intuit Dome, and the two-year renovations of Crypto.com Arena are completed.
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“We are going to look for a place to display it on the main concourse,” Zeidman said. “We want to make it a photo-op where fans can take a picture with it.”
As for Swift, she has moved on to performing in stadiums, but Crypto.com Arena hopes she may someday have a “residency” in the building, similar to Billy Joel’s at Madison Square Garden.
Swift brought her blockbuster “Eras Tour” to Los Angeles last month, during which Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, paid tribute to her late husband and their daughter, Gianna, at one of the concerts.
Kobe and Gianna tragically lost their lives in a helicopter crash in 2020.
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