If you have been to Staples Center to watch the Los Angeles Lakers play, or better yet to the old Fabulous Forum, you can surely hear the regal voice of both buildings in your head while reading this very sentence.
There has always been a memorable majesty in the way the club’s longtime public-address announcer, Lawrence Tanter, has welcomed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Kobe Bryant or the Laker Girls onto the floor. For nearly four decades, Tanter’s delivery has been classy and soulful. It stays with you.
Perhaps that’s why, with N.B.A. teams set to open training camps Tuesday, I can’t stop imagining what it will sound like the first time Tanter ushers LeBron Raymone James into a Lakers home game.