SALT LAKE CITY — On Sunday night, former University of Utah forward Kyle Kuzma became the fourth ex-Runnin’ Ute to win an NBA championship as the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Miami Heat in the league’s bubble in Orlando, joining Arnie Ferrin, Michael Doleac and Andrew Bogut.
In social media posts since Los Angeles’ victory, Kuzma has honored late Lakers legend Kobe Bryant as well as the franchise’s legacy, as it has now tied the Boston Celtics for the most championships won with 17.
First, on Sunday night, he tweeted a photo of the championship trophy with a small purple and gold No. 24 band resting on the base of the trophy and captioned the photo simply “24” in reference to the jersey number Bryant wore at the end of his career.
On Monday morning, Kuzma posted on Instagram a photo of himself kissing the trophy with a caption that read, “#17 in Staples forever” in reference to the championship banner that will be hung in Staples Center, the Lakers’ home arena.
In the NBA Finals, Kuzma averaged 8.5 points and 2.8 rebounds in 21.7 minutes per game off the bench. In the regular season, the third-year pro who was the 27th pick in the 2017 draft, averaged 12.8 points and 4.5 rebounds in exactly 25 minutes per contest.