Exclusive | After ‘weird’ season in New Orleans, Kevon Looney eager to be Lakers’ veteran leader
After the 2025-26 season ended, Kevon Looney didn’t realize the next step in his NBA journey would bring him back to a familiar place.
But after what he described as a “weird” year in New Orleans, Looney is back in Los Angeles, which provided a full-circle moment for him when the Lakers opened their regular season against the Warriors on Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena.
“I know, being on the other side of the Bay-LA rivalry always is, how big those games are, how entertaining those games are,” Looney told The California Post. “So I’m excited to be on the other side and part of that journey.”
Looney’s excitement extended beyond Wednesday, and the three other times during the regular season that he’ll be able to play against the franchise he spent the first decade of his NBA career with.
The 12-year veteran center is back in Southern California after spending his lone collegiate season at UCLA before the Warriors selected him with the No. 30 pick in the 2015 NBA draft.
He already spent a lot of his time during offseasons around Los Angeles before joining the Lakers.
His wife, fitness model and entrepreneur Mariah Simone Winston, with the two getting married over the summer, is from Los Angeles.
Throughout the years, her and her family would ask the 6-foot-9 center about the possibility of playing for the Lakers.
“I’m like, ‘ahh who knows?’,” Looney would respond.
But when the Lakers were among the handful of playoff-hopeful teams that expressed interest in the veteran big man during his free agency, he immediately got excited.
“When looking at the options and the landscape or opportunities, it was like, ‘all right, this is a team, a place I like to be at and it’s a chance to win and play for something’,” Looney told the Post. “It hit every mark that I wanted to be at. I’m here all summer training and everything. It was an easy transition for me. I got a lot of ties here.”
“It wasn’t on my radar at the end of the season, but when it popped up, I’m like, ‘oh s— , this is a great opportunity.”
Joining the Lakers puts Looney back in a familiar environment even though he’s over 350 miles south of where he started his NBA career.
The three-time NBA champion spent the formative years of his professional career playing for the Warriors dynasty that appeared in five NBA Finals (including four of five straight appearances from 2015-19) and won three NBA titles (2017, ‘18 and ‘22) with him not only on the roster, but him having a more significant on-court role with each passing season.
He was the Warriors’ starting center for their 2021-22 championship after being a key reserve in their previous title-winning seasons.
Looney became accustomed to being in championship-contending environments.
Teams that sacrificed with the goal of taking home the Larry O’Brien Trophy each year.
But the lone year in New Orleans took him away from that.
The season started with Looney suffering a sprained left knee during a preseason game in Australia that sidelined him for the start of the regular season.
He was the Pelicans’ starting center by the time within two games of being back. But within the first couple of weeks of him being available, the franchise fired their head coach, Willie Green, who was instrumental to Looney’s arrival in New Orleans.
From there, “the season kind of went a different way,” as Looney put it, with the Pelicans fully focusing on developing their younger players.
He played in just 21 games after playing in at least 61 the previous five seasons.
“I didn’t get a lot of opportunities to play and show what I could do,” Looney told The Post. “So coming back this year with a chip on my shoulder, just to show everybody again that I have a lot left to give in the tank and that I can help a team win.”
The Lakers are betting that’ll be the case for Looney, who’s the primary backup big man to marquee free agency acquisition Walker Kessler.
“Really just have admired him as a competitor, teammate, high IQ player for a number of years, played against him, covered him, coached against him,” coach JJ Redick said. “Great locker room guy. Felt like he could help us in a number of ways, and he’s done that, he’s been that.”
Redick added on Looney’s role: “Understanding what we’re trying to do and then going out and executing it. A big part for him on this team is going to be his willingness to build relationships with these young guys. It was easy for him being in one place for a long time. He talked about getting married and being in New Orleans last year and like it was a different experience, but he’s like committed to building these relationships. And then he can be a vet for these guys.”
Being a veteran leader, with Looney being the oldest player on the team at 30 years old, is a big part of what the Lakers need from him as they look to compete in the West.
He’s the only player on the roster who’s won an NBA championship, let alone multiple.
“For me just somebody that all the guys can lean on and I’ve done played a lot of different roles in this league,” Looney said. “I’ve been in a lot of different scenarios. I’ve played a lot of big games. I kind of know how things are supposed to go, how things are supposed to flow. So just having somebody, me being in the locker room just giving out my experience sharing.
“If they got questions about you deep playoff runs or certain series or certain adjustments. And I’ve kind of seen a lot of things. I’ve played with a lot of special players. So I’ve been able to learn from those guys and just sharing what they taught me to the group. It’s not always just all that be out front, vocal, just end of bench, in practice, just showing the small things that I learned throughout my career to get me to this point and just sharing it with the group.”
And in this area, he’s already helping.
“He’s an unreal vet,” Kessler said. “He’s done it multiple times, he’s experienced, he’s a champion. And, a lot of these guys look to that, look to his guidance on and off the court. So he’s been great in that regard.”
