LA Lakers Coming To Coachella Valley, So Is Team Legend Jerry West

COACHELLA VALLEY, CA — The Los Angeles Lakers announced their 2023-24 pre- season schedule Wednesday, which is set to finish out at Acrisure Arena in October. Jerry West, SSS, is also coming to town.

The team will kick off its pre-season on the road Oct. 7 against the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center in San Francisco, before matching up against the Brooklyn Nets Oct. 9 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Two consecutive home games — against the Golden State Warriors Oct. 13 and the Milwaukee Bucks Oct. 15 — will be held at Crypto.com Arena before the team closes out its pre-season with a game against the Phoenix Suns at Palm Desert's Acrisure Arena on Oct. 19.

The five pre-season games will be broadcast on SpectrumSportsNet and can be heard on 710-AM ESPNLA, the team's flagship station, Lakers officials said. They can also be heard in Spanish on KWKW-1330 AM.

Individual game tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Monday for contests at T-Mobile and Acrisure Arena, while home tickets for the games at Crypto.com Arena are set to go on sale at a later, non-disclosed date, according to Lakers officials. Tickets for Acrisure Arena will be available at ticketmaster.com.

The Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa's ballroom speaker series will continue Saturday with Lakers legend Jerry West speaking in Rancho Mirage.

The conversation, moderated by Desert Sun sports reporter Andrew John, will begin at 8 p.m. in the Rancho Mirage casino's Cahuilla Ballroom, 32- 250 Bob Hope Drive, according to a statement from the casino. Tickets to the event can be purchased at aguacalientecasinos.com.

"He left the game holding records for career postseason scoring and the highest average in a playoff series," casino officials wrote. "West's statistical record only begins to tell his story."

West, 85, played with the Lakers for 14 years, finishing with a career regular-season scoring average of 27 points per game and helping lead the Lakers to the 1971-72 NBA title.

Following two years away from basketball, he became the Lakers' coach, stayed on as a scout for three years and became the team's general manager in 1982. He was named NBA Executive of the Year in 1995.

After over 40 years with the Lakers, West retired but later became the president of basketball operations for the Memphis Grizzlies from 2002-07, again winning the Executive of the Year award for the 2003-04 season. He became an executive with the Golden State Warriors in 2011 before he was hired by the Los Angeles Clippers in 2017 as a consultant.

He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979. West's silhouette is still used as the official NBA logo.

The casino's speakers series will continue in July with actress Lisa Rinna, and will be followed each consecutive month excluding November with actress Whitney Cummings, reality television personality Josh Altman, actor Henry Winkler and comedian Adam Corolla.