There are countless mysteries that have remained unsolved throughout sports history. Some involve frozen envelopes and draft lottery conspiracies. Others involve long forgotten players and events relegated to passing mentions on random message boards or out of print newspapers. The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the most famous and historically rich franchises in all of professional sports. There are a near infinite number of books, television shows, documentaries and articles dedicated to basically every important person and event in their history. The Lakers are not a franchise conducive to mystery. They are located in LA, everyone seems to care about them, and they seem perfectly content maximizing the attention they receive. And yet, here we are. This is a franchise that has basically every stone turned over in its entire history, but one thing remains unsolved.
So hire your favorite LA-based private eye who does things their own way, and start digging. Remember, in this town, there are more questions than answers. This mind-boggler stretches across old message boards, defunct newspapers, bizarre Instagram accounts, vintage trading cards, nationally televised broadcasts, and old Lakers merchandise. It is not about a player or a forgotten mascot. We are talking about the Lakers Giraffe.
Specifically, a cartoon giraffe that appears throughout various corners of Lakers history despite seemingly having no official connection to the franchise whatsoever. At first the assumption was that there had to be a simple explanation. If a giraffe had somehow become associated with the team, surely somebody would know why. Instead, the deeper the search went, the stranger things became.
Brad has spent years obsessing over this. He is the type of Lakers fan who can tell you about championship teams from decades before he was born. On his first day of kindergarten he carried a Lakers backpack. Fifteen years later, as a college senior, he will be carrying one again. The Lakers have been one of the constants in his life, which is precisely why the giraffe bothers him so much.
The mystery began for him in 2016 while reading NBA Draft coverage on Silver Screen and Roll, SB Nation's Lakers blog. Years later, one article in particular would send him down a rabbit hole he has never truly escaped. In 2020, Lakers writer Harrison Faigen published a piece called "The Urban Legend of the Lakers Giraffe Logo." It was primarily about a bizarre Instagram account that recreated LeBron James posts by drawing him as a giraffe. But buried inside was a far more interesting revelation. The Lakers and giraffes had been connected long before Instagram existed. Suddenly, evidence started appearing everywhere.
The most famous examples come from Fleer's 1961-62 Lakers basketball cards. Go on eBay right now and search any Fleer 1961-62 Lakers card and the giraffe will be there in the top right corner. Look up Elgin Baylor or Jerry West from that set. Every card features it, just sitting there.
Over the years, references have surfaced in advertisements, promotional materials and various corners of basketball history. Every time someone thinks they have found the beginning of the story, another piece of evidence turns up somewhere else. The prevailing theory is that Fleer simply invented the giraffe as a playful symbol for the team. Other evidence suggests the image may have been used more broadly. One internet user claims it appeared prominently in a 1961 Los Angeles Examiner advertisement promoting an upcoming Lakers-Celtics game. Verifying that claim has proven nearly impossible. The Examiner ceased publication decades ago and much of its archive remains difficult to access. Still, the specificity of the claim makes it hard to dismiss entirely.
What makes the whole thing particularly frustrating is that the Lakers themselves seem unable to explain it. Team representatives have denied that the giraffe was ever an official logo. Historical logo databases do not recognize it. Most casual fans have never heard of it. And yet it clearly existed. Someone created it. Someone approved it. Someone decided that a giraffe standing in front of a basketball should somehow represent the Los Angeles Lakers. The question is who.
The strangest development came during the NBA's 75th Anniversary celebration. While displaying historical team logos and imagery, ESPN briefly included the giraffe as part of the Lakers' visual history. A logo that supposedly never officially existed was suddenly appearing on a national broadcast produced by the world's largest sports network. If the giraffe was never real, why does it keep showing up? If it is real, why can nobody explain it?
To be honest, when this research began it seemed like it would be straightforward. One giraffe, one promotion, one internet joke that spiraled into nothing. The reality turned out to be far more confusing. The giraffe occupies a bizarre middle ground between fact and folklore. It is not quite official. It is not quite invented. It has existed for too long and appeared in too many places to be dismissed, yet there is no definitive account of how it came to be. Sports history is full of things people have forgotten. It is far rarer to find something everyone can see but nobody can explain.
Which is why, after all of this, the argument here is simple: make the giraffe the Lakers mascot. The franchise has never had an official one, Dancing Barry and Slam-Duck aside. Why not let a seven-foot cartoon giraffe roam the sidelines at Crypto.com Arena? Confused fans would eventually learn the story. Courtside celebrities would certainly have questions. And somewhere beneath layers of overlooked basketball history, an obscure piece of Lakers lore might finally get the recognition it deserves. The mystery may never be fully solved. But until it is, the Lakers Giraffe remains exactly what every good legend should be: hiding in plain sight, just waiting to be found.
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