Richard Curry can tell you exactly why he was standing in the middle of a crowded Figueroa Street outside Staples Center, wearing a shiny purple Lakers jersey with a plastic Lakers medallion dangling around his neck.
"I was down here in 2000 and 2001," he said of the gatherings to celebrate earlier Lakers championships. "I missed the 2002 parade, thinking 'Oh, they'll be back next year.' I had to wait another seven years to come back down here."
The 46-year-old building engineer smiled: "And here I am."
He was joined Wednesday morning by nearly 250,000 other celebrants, according to police estimates. They lined Figueroa and packed the Coliseum -- a wandering, cheering, picture-taking mass of Lakers fans all belying the notion that Los Angeles doesn't come together to celebrate anything.
From the Westside and East L.A., from Victorville and Vegas, and from just down the street, people came to catch a glimpse of the team parading from Staples Center to the Coliseum to celebrate its 10th NBA championship since moving to Los Angeles.
"We thought, well, let's cruise on down, this is our neighborhood," said Shannon Vasquez, who lives downtown, looking at her English bulldog, Bridget Jones, who was resting and panting in the street. Figueroa was cleared of traffic for miles. The day and the streets between downtown and the Coliseum belonged to revelers doing something as rare in Los Angeles as gathering together: walking.
Fifteen people were arrested and two officers suffered minor injuries, police said. Outside the east end of the Coliseum, fans breached a security barrier and climbed onto a ticket booth. When officers on foot could not disperse them, a mounted unit was brought in. Fans threw bottles at the mounted officers, prompting police to use less-than-lethal beanbag shots to quell the disturbance.
"We had knuckleheads in several areas," said Chief William J. Bratton, adding that "generally, it went very smoothly."
In the past, the Lakers had paraded from City Hall to Staples, but this year, officials decided the Coliseum was a more crowd-suitable destination.
"The Coliseum is a lot bigger than the Staples Center," said LAPD Cmdr. Andy Smith. "The last time we used the Staples Center, L.A. Live wasn't there," he said referring to the adjacent entertainment complex. "There were parking lots."
The area "doesn't have the space anymore to cope with the crowds," he said.
