LOS ANGELES – Kevon Looney wasn't aware UCLA's men's basketball social media accounts had posted him front and center on their "Bruins in the NBA" graphic until The Athletic's Dan Woike showed him at shootaround on Wednesday morning.
There he was, the 6-foot-9 big man with his hands at his hips and a smile beaming on his face wearing a gold No. 55 jersey.
"I guess that's the perks of being," Looney said with a laugh.
The 30-year-old made his debut with the Los Angeles Lakers at the four-minute mark in the first quarter on Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena against the Golden State Warriors, the team that drafted him and who he won three NBA championships with. Two of those three came in Looney's first three seasons out of UCLA, an experience that he says warped his expectations early in his career but one that he's now grateful for as he looks back 11 years later.
"We went to the Finals almost every year, so I just felt like that was always supposed to happen," Looney said, standing in a pair of yellow Anta KT8s, a nod to his former Golden State teammate Klay Thompson. "I feel like every game we were supposed to win. But I've been in the league a while now and have some ups and downs, not making the playoffs and coming back and winning again, you realize how hard it actually is."
𝐍𝐁𝐀 𝐁𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐬 ready for Opening Week.
— UCLA Men’s Basketball (@UCLAMBB) October 20, 2026
Best of luck to our guys!#GoBruins 🏀 pic.twitter.com/SvO4d8HWnv
That experience is exactly why the Lakers brought in Looney as a backup center this offseason. Though he himself is a newcomer on a team that has nine of them, six of whom are expected to make their Laker debuts on Wednesday, he understands what goes into winning a championship. He knows it sometimes takes a bit of luck.
This group, though still very new to each other, gives Looney the same feeling he had in the Bay Area.
"We have a group that can do that," he said. "But like I said, it takes adversity to create character and grow as a group. We got high hopes, we got the talent, and the coaches and the culture."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kevon Looney makes Lakers debut against Warriors, the team that started it all