Lakers News: Playing for Lakers ‘dream come true’ for hometown kid Travis Wear

The Los Angeles Lakers made the signing of South Bay Lakers forward Travis Wear official Friday morning, marking the start of Wear’s first regular season stint with LA and his second contract with an NBA team.

A native of Southern California, Wear will fulfill a lifelong dream of wearing the purple and gold, he told South Bay Lakers digital reporter Ryan Young after signing his contract Friday.

“That’s tough for words to describe, that feeling.” he said in the video interview. “I grew up a huge Lakers fan in Huntington Beach. My dad’s a huge Lakers fan. To be able to wear that jersey after, for so many years, just being a huge fan and loving that team, it’s a lot of hard work and a lot of years in the making.”

Wear attended Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, CA before committing to play at the University of North Carolina with his twin brother, David. However, after a year at North Carolina, both Wear brothers transferred transfer to UCLA, where they spent three years before going undrafted in 2014.

Despite not getting drafted, Travis made the New York Knicks regular season roster that year and played 51 games in New York. Since then, Wear has bounced around, with stops in Spain and eventually Los Angeles, where he has spent the last year and a half with the Lakers G-league affiliate, the South Bay Lakers.

In 33 games for South Bay this season, the 27-year-old is averaging 16.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists, while draining 41.9 percent of his three-pointers.

“It was a little surreal after playing with South Bay last year and half of this year so far. Obviously the goal is to get up with the Los Angeles Lakers and for that to finally come true is a dream come true.”

Wear will be available for the Lakers Saturday in San Antonio, where they’ll look to extend their winning streak to a season-high five games.

All quotes are via the interview posted by the South Bay Lakers official Twitter account (@SouthBayLakers).