The Los Angeles Lakers have proudly celebrated the NBA's Latin Nights program by flaunting their "Los Lakers" jerseys for several years. For the vast majority of those seasons, the Lakers featured a Spanish speaking player, namely Pau Gasol.
With Gasol gone, the Lakers only had the options of Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant, as non-native Spanish speakers. However, neither player is available to play, so "Los Lakers" will be more English speaking than ever before.
Even though the players may not speak Spanish, the Lakers' certainly do. With the introduction of the Los Lakers Twitter account and Spanish language content on their website, the Lakers have embraced their Hispanic fanbase.
"We take immense pride in the initiatives and programs we've undertaken with Spanish speaking and Hispanic communities throughout our history, and are happy to continue these efforts by participating in this league program," Lakers President Jeanie Buss said in a statement.
The Lakers will first take part in Latin Nights when they take on "El Heat" on Mar. 4 in Miami. However, the team will not debut the 2015 edition of "Los Lakers" until Mar. 8, 2015, when the Dallas Mavericks come to LA. For both games, the Lakers will take wear special shooting warmup shirts to commemorate the occasion.
In all, 14 NBA games will include a special Latin flavor during the month of March.
