![Tyson Chandler](https://heavy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/gettyimages-501371876-e1542038709105.jpg?quality=65&strip=all&w=780)
Getty Tyson Chandler played for the Phoenix Suns before joining the Los Angeles lakers early in November.
Tyson Chandler is all smiles after his first three games with the Los Angeles Lakers.
He had the game-saving block last night in a thriller against the Atlanta Hawks, and the entire tone of the recently-struggling team seems to have changed. LeBron James, for one, is pumped.
Check out the entire Lakers team’s reaction to the block last night–James nearly bowled Chandler over in his excitement.
It seems that Chandler is the missing piece the Lakers have needed. After struggling on defense and going a dismal 4-6 in the first part of the season, the team is now on a 3-game winning streak. And who has been present for each of those games but the new addition himself–36-year-old Tyson Chandler.
He’s proving a sentiment expressed by Kyrie Irving last night: that young teams benefit immensely from a veteran role player’s presence. Chandler is benefitting too, though. In his postgame interview last night he was radiating pure joy after the win.
“With the leadership that we have in the locker room and the young energy, I found myself acting like a kid in a candy store all over again,” he smiled as he said of the team.
Describing the moments immediately after the block, he said that he and LeBron were like “two kids, jumping for joy.”
“We both want exactly the same thing,” he continued. “And that’s to turn this historic franchise that has won over and over throughout the years and get it back to those type of days.”
It may be too soon to say for sure, but with both Chandler and James on the roster it seems like the Lakers could do exactly that.
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Tyson Chandler: ‘I’m acting like a kid in a candy store all over again’ Playing with the Lakers