Google News Trevor Ariza: Veteran experience gives Lakers edge
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Trevor Ariza believes the veteran experience the Los Angeles Lakers have will help them in their bid to win a championship next season. The Lakers have a superstar trio in LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook.
Also, the Lakers have former All Star players Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard. “I believe the upside to that is we’ve all seen so much in this league that nothing surprises,” Ariza said, per Lakers Nation.
“We understand how long the season is. How to pace yourself, how to take care of your body. Understanding how important it is for everybody to be on the same page to get to that ultimate goal and that’s winning the championship at the end of the year”.
After Westbrook got traded to the Lakers, he immediately started recruiting Ariza. “It’s funny because Russ got traded and 20 minutes after he got traded he was on my phone,” Ariza said. “I don’t know if he was telling me he was happy to be home or he wanted to go to dinner or what he wanted to do.
I just know he called my phone like, ‘Yo, what are you doing? Where are you at? I need to talk to you, I need to see you.’ From then on we kept in contact like that. Constant communication and it just so happened that I’m here”.
Ariza was eyeing a Lakers return
“But I think the biggest recruiter, if you want me to be honest, was my children. My children being here for the past three years without traveling because I’ve been moving around so much that they were ready for me to be home and I wanted to be home with them," Ariza revealed.
Over 10 years ago, Ariza won an NBA title with the Lakers. Ariza is now hoping to win again a championship with the Lakers and Westbrook wants to put his team in a position to compete for a championship. “Anytime a situation like this comes about or an opportunity presents itself it can be stressful,” Westbrook said at his introductory press conference, per Lakers Nation.
“A lot of emotions, but ultimately the biggest thing for me being in this league when you know teams that actually want you… to me, that means more than anything else. “At that point, it’s my job to make sure and come and do what I’m supposed to do and that’s to compete and make sure we have a chance to compete for a championship. And yes, my family was very, very happy [laughs]."
