L.A. coffee shop bans Paul George, Kawhi Leonard from all locations for joining Clippers

Kawhi Leonard and Paul George shocked the city of Los Angeles and the NBA world at large by teaming up on the Clippers. Their choice sent the Lakers reeling, and the city into a state of bewilderment and apparent rage.

Alfred Coffee has released a (tongue-in-cheek) statement banning Leonard and George from all their locations throughout the city. Farley Elliot of Eater Los Angeles summed up the news:

It looks like some folks around Los Angeles are turning on Kawhi Leonard after his decision to join the Clippers over the Lakers last weekend. The busy social media account for Alfred Coffee put out notice of an outright ban for both Kawhi and new teammate Paul George “from all Alfred locations,” and promised more details to come on the matter. While the whole thing certainly seems tongue-in-cheek from owner and LA native Josh Zad, Eater did reach out just to confirm, and will update if Zad responds.

This does kind of go to show how much work the Clippers have to go to come close to catching up to how deeply the city of L.A. cares about the Lakers. I’d probably argue the gap between the two franchises is insurmountable (and new Laker Jared Dudley agrees), but that’s neither here nor there.

Quite frankly, there’s no way to write that graf without emitting a sour grapes vibe, so I won’t continue down that line of analysis.

More interestingly, in my opinion, is how cool it would be to see a crosstown rivalry between two teams that have never really been good at the same time. Both the Lakers’ and Clippers’ peaks over the course of their histories have taken place during the other franchise’s valleys. It will be fascinating to watch both teams legitimately vie for a championship this year, and monitor the back-and-forth their competition creates in the city as well.

For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. Here is a list of every free agent credibly connected to the Lakers so far.