D-Fenders Games Put Fans Close To Lakers Farm Team & Cheerleaders
If you’ve ever really wanted to get up close to professional basketball action, then check out one of the D-League teams if you’ve got one in your city.
The D-League is the NBA’s Development League, which is basketball’s equivalent of baseball’s AAA farm system. PubClub.com went to the LA Lakers team, the D-Fenders. this year and received one very pleasant surprise: The Laker Girls are the cheerleaders!
Not only are they the cheerleaders, they perform right in front of the fans. The D-Fenders play in the Toyota Center in El Segundo and in many ways it’s like going to a high school game. It’s casual, comfortable and there’s only a few rows of seats.
Seats Are Close To The Action
You’re so close to the action you can see the expressions on the players’ faces and as they run by, the floor shakes as if you’re standing on top of one of those old motel vibrating beds. (Or here in L.A., it’s like about a 3.0 earthquake rumbling beneath you.)
This, of course, puts you right in front of the Laker Girls, who perform their famous dance routines during breaks. You’re basically at courtside and get to see their dimples as they smile.
The only way to get any closer is to run into them at a team promotion. Even down low at Laker games, you’re a bit of distance from the court.
You’re also close to the players, some of whom do get called up to the NBA. Or have an NBA legacy; on the night PubClub.com went, John Stockton’s son was playing for the visitors, the Reno Bighorns (Sacramento Kings affiliate).
D-Fenders games are casual and if you go with some friends, then you’ll spend half your time chatting while the action takes place just a few feet from your seat. There is a bar with food, upstairs from the court. It’s Shark’s Cove from Manhattan Beach, transplanted above the LA Kings practice facility and here called King’s Cove.
Beers are $5.50.
Ticket prices for D-Fenders games start at $25. The team’s season runs from mid-November until the first of April.
Team Website: losangeles.dleague.nba.com
Toyota Center Location: 555 N. Nash St., El Segunco, CA
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