‘Wish he was with us..’: NBA fans left blues as former champ returns to face Stephen Curry’s Warriors after joining LeBron James’ Lakers

As the NBA preseason rolls on, fans are excited to see their favorite stars go head-to-head on the floor. With teams revamping their roster with trades and free agent signings, players have moved from their former team to another.

Every year, players change teams for several reasons. It may be because they want to chase for a championship with a better team, or a more lucrative contract offered by a new team.

Juan Toscano-Anderson will play for the Lakers

Overall, fans are always thrilled to see players take on their former team and teammates. Sometimes there is bad blood between the player and his former team which results in an interesting game for the fans.

But that is not the case in this situation. Former Golden State Warriors player Juan Toscano-Anderson recently left the Warriors to join the Los Angeles Lakers. After winning a championship with Golden State, the forward will now play with the trio of LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook.

After being drafted in the 2015 NBA draft, Toscano-Anderson bounced around in different leagues outside of the United States. He eventually made his way to the NBA G-League and started playing for the Santa Cruz Warriors before being picked up by Golden State in 2020.

After playing for three seasons and winning an NBA championship alongside Stephen Curry with the Golden State Warriors, he ultimately chose to part ways with the team to begin a new chapter in his professional career.

Fans were nostalgic and left in the blues seeing one of their favorite players in a Los Angeles Lakers jersey as the Golden State Warriors took on the Los Angeles Lakers in preseason. A fan commented, “I wish he was still with us.” As another Twitter user commented, “Seeing him in Lakers gear feels bad.”

Juan is not the first player to leave the Warriors for the Lakers

He wasn’t the first player to leave the Golden State Warriors to join the Los Angeles Lakers. Kent Bazemore was another player who took a pay cut to join the star-studded squad of LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook. However, the Lakers failed to even qualify for the playoffs that season.

Juan Toscano-Anderson is from East Oakland, California. So for fans to see a California native play for another team is understandably difficult. Hopefully he has an even better playing career with the Los Angeles Lakers than he did with the Golden State Warriors.

Let us know in the comments below what you think.