Again, this is how it’s supposed to work in Los Angeles.

The Sparks missed the WNBA playoffs in 2021 “by one possession,” as Coach/GM Derek Fisher pointed out at a news conference Wednesday. They last won a championship in 2016, and while everyone said the right things, it had to be kind of galling, deep down, when Candace Parker returned home to Chicago as a free agent and won a championship with the Sky on her first attempt.

So it was time to take some of those big swings in what has become a recent L.A. sporting tradition. You might not be expected to raise a banner, but you’re darned sure expected to try for it.

“We all recognize the city as Titletown,” Fisher said. “All the other sports teams are winning championships and racking up championships. It’s been six years since the Sparks have touched the trophy.

“And through a lot of conversations, discussions as a team internally, ownership, management, staff, we made a decision that if an opportunity presented itself to bring in a player and a personality that could change the timing of us having a chance to access that trophy again, we would do it.”

Then he introduced Liz Cambage, a four-time WNBA All-Star, two-time All-WNBA selection and 2018 scoring champion. And while it might be a wee bit of hyperbole, those with a sense of L.A. basketball history can see the familiarity of the 6-foot-8 Australian’s path to SoCal.

There’s no longer official linkage between the Sparks and the Lakers, save for the presence of five-time NBA champion Fisher on the team’s organizational chart. But this move, as the centerpiece of a restructuring that also included the recent acquisitions of Katie Lou Samuelson and Chennedy Carter and the signing of Jordin Canada, has to bring back memories.

The Lakers traded for Wilt. They traded for Kareem. They signed Shaq. They acquired Dwight Howard, which didn’t work out the first time, but there’s a pattern here. When the best center on the market became available, they struck.

The message is clear: Banner or bust. (Somewhere, if he’s paying attention, Rams GM Les Snead might be grinning ear to ear.)

It’s not always a sure thing. The current Lakers got one title out of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, but that organization again seems to be a mess just a season and a half later. The Dodgers, whose daring acquisition of Mookie Betts paid off in 2020, thought the additions of Max Scherzer and Trea Turner at the 2021 trade deadline could be their magic ticket to another title last summer, and that didn’t quite work out.

But fans tend to forgive you for trying, whereas just staying the course and hoping is seldom looked upon so fondly.

The Sparks have indeed loaded up to bolster a roster around Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike. Samuelson, a former Mater Dei High standout, will give L.A. a 3-point weapon. Carter, 23, is a dynamic scorer and capable of being an All-WNBA player in Fisher’s eyes, though her season in Atlanta last year ended with a suspension for “conduct detrimental to the team” following an altercation with a teammate. Canada, a star at Windward High and UCLA, was part of two championship teams in Seattle – and from the sound of it at her news conference last week she certainly understands the championship expectations that now exist in her hometown.

And just in case you wondered if Cambage understood the heritage …

“Growing up (in Australia). everyone told me to watch Shaq play,” the 30-year-old said with a laugh during Wednesday’s news conference. “I was too busy watching Kobe. I should have been studying Shaq’s game. Now I’m studying Shaq’s game and still trying to be Kobe.

“I wanted to play here. I wanted to be a star growing up. I wanted Hollywood and the lights. Now that I’m here, it’s not all like it’s painted in the movies. But I want to be here and I want to work hard and I want to grow. And there’s a lot to me beyond basketball and I’m very excited to be here and get to live that L.A. dream.”

We will discover this about Cambage, too: As also befits that heritage of L.A. centers, she will not shy away from saying what she thinks.

For example, she was asked about her reaction after her former team in Las Vegas signed new coach Becky Hammon to a $1 million annual salary – almost equivalent to the $1,379,200 salary-cap figure per team and four times the WNBA’s “supermax” salary of $228,094.

ahhh yes the @WNBA, where a head coach can get paid 4X the highest paid players super max contract. lmao and y’all think imma spend another season upgrading my seat on a flight to get to games out of my own pocket.

— Elizabeth Cambage (@ecambage) February 1, 2022

Cambage recognized that Aces owner Mark Davis was “making a statement,” and that on balance it was a positive, but then added, “We love to see it, but it hurts to know that your coach is pretty much being paid (equivalent to) the whole salary cap.”

The point: The WNBA can be far less than big league in the way it treats its players. Cambage also talked of flying economy, trying to fit her “borderline 6-9” frame into even an exit row seat or paying for an upgrade. Or being on a 5:30 a.m. bus to the airport for a commercial flight the morning after a playoff game last year, after league officials refused to allow a charter flight.

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“You’re not going to get the best out of athletes if they’re treated like that,” she said. “I’m not just sitting around bitching just because I have a view. I want the best for women, period. I don’t care if you’re in the WNBA, I don’t care if you’re in college, I don’t care if you’re in high school. I want the best for you. And that’s why I use my voice.

“Change will happen.”

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