‘Congrats on Brandon Ingram’, Flea, noted Lakers fan, tells NOLA Jazz Fest crowd

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Pelicans star forward Brandon Ingram is ascending towards becoming one of the most exciting young stars to watch in the NBA so it would be no surprise if fans of his former team are missing him a little bit.

Last Sunday, the Red Hot Chili Peppers played as one of the headliners for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest, notably filling the set that was supposed to feature the Foo Fighters before the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins.

Chili Peppers bassist, Flea, well known as a massive Lakers and basketball fan in general, acknowledged Ingram’s stellar play while on stage during the band’s Jazz Fest set.

“Congrats on having Brandon Ingram,” Flea told the Jazz Fest crowd on Sunday before launching into the rest of the raucous set.

Ingram was one of the several assets New Orleans received when they traded their former franchise player Anthony Davis in 2019. In pairing Davis with LeBron James, the Lakers instantly won the championship the season following the trade. However, the Lakers followed that season up with a disappointing early playoff exit in 2020 and they failed to make the Play-In Tournament with a losing record that placed them near the bottom of the Western Conference.

The Lakers’ 2019 title was also won inside of a bubble at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the general public did not attend the NBA Finals and players had the option to opt-out of the competition for safety reasons.

The Pelicans, by comparison, did not instantly get better after that Davis trade but they eventually improved and a large part of that is due to Ingram getting better on both sides of the floor each year.

If the Ingram shoutout by Flea seems random, it’s not. Not only is he a big basketball fan, he’s a fan of Ingram personally ever since he was drafted by Los Angeles out of Duke in 2016.

Flea is such an Ingram fan that he continued to follow his progress since he was shipped out of Hollywood and into the Big Easy.

He even was happy for Ingram, who is a native of Kinston, North Carolina. He complemented a feature by writer Mirim Fader from back in 2019 about how Ingram feels at home and at peace in a southern city like New Orleans for a piece she wrote for Bleacher Report.

Now, as a player that experienced the postseason for the first time this year, it’s likely safe to assume that Ingram will be acknowledged by the biggest of names around the world for the way he’s progressed on the court.

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