Garciduenas, who was laid off in June 2011 with nearly 20 other longtime employees, including training staff members and an assistant general manager, learned of his departure when he received a letter about temporary insurance. He received no severance pay. There was no farewell party. He spent the next year living off unemployment and retirement funds.
He came close to selling some of his valuable Lakers memorabilia to make ends meet but finally worked his way into this truck. On a recent afternoon on a narrow Hollywood street surrounded by post-production studios, Garciduenas could be found serving lunch to a long line of office workers with his same trademark Lakers smile and good humor, one bit of his Lakers past missing.
He has seven NBA championship rings — one more than Michael Jordan, two more than Kobe Bryant — yet he never wears one to work.
“I’d rather not end up with teriyaki sauce all over them,” he said.
Garciduenas is a partner in Sam Choy’s Pineapple Express, a truck that traverses Southern California six days a week selling the creations of celebrated Hawaiian chef Sam Choy. Garciduenas, 50, drives the truck, takes the orders, and generally manages a business that is literally miles from his former life in the center of the Lakers’ glamorous storms.