Players come up short in attire too

It was a surprisingly long process to finally get to the “short shorts� exhibition the Lakers unveiled Sunday against Boston.

First and foremost, the players had to sign off on a return to the 1980s NBA look, if only for one night. Some of them wore the shorts at recent practices just to be sure they knew what they were getting themselves into.

“I think it’s cool,� forward Lamar Odom said before the game. “It’ll be fun for the fans too. I expect them to laugh maybe two to three minutes straight.�

The Lakers changed back to their regular shorts for the second half.

To get the short shorts, the Lakers partnered with a long-ago uniform supplier after discovering that their present-day uniform maker, Adidas, did not have a physical pattern for them.

Team equipment manager Rudy Garciduenas contacted the local supplier that made Lakers uniforms years ago and found they still had the ability to make it happen.

“It was a lot of work for one night of wearing shorts,� said Tim Harris, the Lakers’ senior vice president of business operations and chief marketing officer.

Harris thought up the concept a few months ago while determining which games the Lakers would wear their 1987-88 throwback jerseys, part of the league’s Hardwood Classics program.

The players wore their regular shorts for casual shooting 90 minutes before the game.

They stayed in their warmup sweats all the way through player introductions, revealing the short shorts right before tipoff.

It added to a vibrant, if not entertaining, pregame atmosphere at Staples Center, with fans offering a standing ovation when the Lakers took the court.

Centers Andrew Bynum and Kwame Brown in the same frontcourt? Probably not.

“That doesn’t seem to work for us offensively,� Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said.

Jackson said he would consider such a combination only if the team needed a defensive stop in a specific situation.

Luke Walton and Sasha Vujacic played limited minutes Sunday after coming back from sprained ankles. Vujacic was injured in Friday’s game against Utah, and Walton had sat out three games.

“They’re both a little gimpy,� Jackson said.

Walton had three points in 13 minutes, and Vujacic was scoreless in seven minutes.

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