After 32 seasons and eight championships, Gary Vitti is hanging up his clipboard and medical bag.
The Lakers’ head athletic trainer is retiring at the end of the season, so the organization saw fit to honor him in between the first and second quarters during Sunday’s game against Boston.
His fellow soon-to-be-retiree, Kobe Bryant, had trouble putting into words Vitti’s importance during his 20-year career.
“That is a very long answer,” Bryant said. “I was really happy to see the ovation he received."
“Everybody knows about all of the great players that the Lakers have had, but none of us would be able to get there and perform the way we perform without him. It’s just not possible. He’s the guy behind all of it. What he meant to my career is (something that) you can’t really put into words.”
A tribute was played on the videoboard during Vitti’s ceremony, in which he says, “I’m a Laker. That’s What I am. That’s what I do. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
General Manager Mitch Kupchak then presented Vitti with a custom gift at center court. While the sold-out Staples Center crowd rose to its feet, Vitti posed with a framed, gold jersey with his name across the back, above a purple shield and white medical cross.
“He’s a special guy, and he’s all love and peace to everybody,” D’Angelo Russell said.
Vitti will serve as a consultant to the Lakers for the next two years, overseeing the construction of the team’s new practice facility. However, he will no longer be on the coach’s bench after more than three decades of being a mainstay there.
From the Showtime era through present day, Vitti has worked more than 3,000 preseason, regular-season and playoff games across the country for the Lakers.
Though Jordan Clarkson has only been a Laker for two seasons, he remembers Vitti from his childhood, as his mother worked at a San Antonio hotel frequented by NBA teams visiting the Spurs.
“Seeing him as a kid, and now retiring, it’s sad,” Clarkson said. “It’s going to be an empty place when he’s gone.”
Aside from Bryant and perhaps Metta World Peace, no current Laker has been more affected by Vitti than Julius Randle, whom Vitti helped rehab his broken leg during his rookie season last year.
“His and my relationship goes far beyond basketball,” Randle said. “He cares about me as a person. It’s sad, but I’m sure I’ll keep in contact with the old man.”