The Lakers faithful are stirring up quite the commotion, not over a fresh draft pick or an impending trade deadline, but over one of hip-hop’s living legends: Snoop Dogg. Yes, you read that right—Snoop has the Lakers Nation asking, “Why settle for courtside when he could be courtside and on the roster?” After his recent viral basketball cameo on streamer Kai Cenat’s live broadcast, fans are practically petitioning for Lakers GM Rob Pelinka to sign the 52-year-old rapper on a veteran minimum contract.
On Tuesday night, Snoop hit up Cenat’s stream and made one heck of an impression with a trick shot only the Doggfather could pull off. He tossed the ball off the wall, underhand no less, and it banked in perfectly, punctuated with his iconic smirk to the camera. No surprise, the clip blew up faster than a Lakers rumor in the offseason. Social media lit up as fans demanded Snoop suit up in the purple and gold.
“Yep, Snoop is coming off the bench next game,” wrote one fan. Another tagged Rob Pelinka directly, urging, “Tell Rob to sign Snoop for a vet minimum.” And the demands kept rolling in: “Get Snoop in a jersey TOMORROW,” another tweeted, “We’ve already got a ‘Westside’ rookie; it’s time to go full Doggstyle.”
The Lakers’ fandom has never been shy with its opinions, especially when it comes to player rotations. With Gabe Vincent struggling and D’Angelo Russell catching heat for his inconsistency, fans weren’t just hyping up Snoop; they were calling for him to take over some very real minutes. One fan tweeted, “Give him those Gabe Vincent minutes ASAP,” while another went for the jugular with, “Sign him NOW, goodbye D’Angelo.” The comments read like a hilarious, half-serious campaign to get Snoop a spot in the lineup.
It’s not the first time Snoop’s had a run-in with Lakers hype. Just a couple of weeks ago, he popped onto ESPN’s First Take to share his thoughts on the upcoming Lakers season. When asked about the rookie Dalton Knecht, Snoop couldn’t resist handing him a moniker, dubbing him “Westside Knecht.” But Lakers fans, in a show of loyalty to the rookie’s chosen nickname “Knecht 4,” ran a Twitter poll and solidly voted “Knecht 4” as the nickname of choice, with 78% of the votes over Snoop’s “Westside.”
With the Lakers boasting a mix of veterans and fresh faces, adding a personality like Snoop to the roster—even hypothetically—would certainly shake things up. As one fan jokingly summarized: “At this point, Snoop Dogg in a Lakers jersey makes as much sense as anything else we’ve tried. Rob, you know what to do.”
