Even before he was fired, Garciduenas had been considering opening a food truck with former Lakers chef Jeff Mora, using a menu devised by Choy, whom he had met during training camps in Hawaii. It finally came together last summer, and Garciduenas has been driving and dishing ever since, once relying on his Lakers skills to calmly navigate the truck 40 miles with no brakes and get it back on the road the next day.
“Rudy has an amazing temperament. He’s used to dealing with multiple situations, things going south,” Mora said. “He’s the perfect guy to hit a moving target on a daily basis.”
He has actually served some members of the Lakers, as Kupchak brought a front-office crew over to his truck when it was once parked next to a building adjacent to the Lakers’ training facility. Garciduenas said he wasn’t embarrassed, but proud of his new job, and happy to relive old memories.
“It was a sad experience, it was a part of my life that was hard to let go, but now, with this truck, I feel like I’ve been given a breath of fresh air,” he said. “The Lakers were very good to me for a very long time, and I never want to forget that.”