EL SEGUNDO >> Before the Lakers fulfilled the Prophecy of LaVar, drafted a hometown hero and hit reset on a rebuilding effort that has come in fits and starts, Luke Walton understood what fans believed would reclaim the city’s hardwood heritage.
Lonzo Ball. Whenever Walton stepped outside his Manhattan Beach home, fans told him who the Lakers needed. Lonzo Ball.
“They were going nuts for him before the draft happened,” Walton said Thursday night.
With a cross-country phone call originating from the Lakers’ headquarters in El Segundo shortly after 4:30 p.m. Thursday, the Lakers reshaped this city’s struggling franchise, drafting Ball, a sweet-passing point guard from UCLA and Chino Hills.