Twin NBA stars, Brook Lopez, left, and his brother, Robin Lopez, carry souvenirs for family and friends as they walk out of the World of Disney store at Disneytown at the Shanghai Disney Resort on June 14, 2016. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Lakers center, Brook Lopez, takes questions at his introductory news conference in El Segundo on Wednesday, June 28, 2017. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

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Rob Pelinka, general manager for the Lakers, right, introduces new center Brook Lopez in El Segundo on Wednesday, June 28, 2017. The Lakers acquired Lopez and forward Kyle Kuzma from the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for Timofey Mozgov and DAngelo Russell. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

Brook Lopez and his brother Robin participated in a Disneyland ceremony where Chewbacca was presented with the medal he never received at the end of “Star Wars.” (Photo courtesy of Robin Lopez/Twitter)

Lakers center Brook Lopez at his introductory news conference in El Segundo on Wednesday, June 28, 2017. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)



Brook Lopez has visited several of the Disney properties, and shows up in a lot of people’s selfies from the theme parks. The new Lakers center even purchased a homesite in Walt Disney World’s Golden Oak community in Orlando. (Twitter)

Brook Lopez, left, a new member of the Lakers, addresses reporters during a news conference at Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, Calif., on Wednesday, June 28, 2017. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Lakers center Brook Lopez points to the retired jerseys after his introductory news conference in El Segundo on Wednesday, June 28, 2017. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

SANTA MONICA — After visiting Disneyland twice in his first three days living in Los Angeles, Brook Lopez knew he had to rein things in if he had any hope of getting himself ready for his 10th NBA season and first with a new team.

“I’ve been trying to be good,” he said last week, “trying to temper myself.”

The 7-footer’s love of comics, animation and, especially, Disney can be traced to his early days growing up in North Hollywood, before his family moved to Fresno. His mother, Deborah Ledford, would wedge family trips to Disneyland into a schedule full of basketball games for Lopez, his twin brother Robin, now a center for the Chicago Bulls, and their two older brothers.

“I loved it,” Lopez said over lunch at a Santa Monica steakhouse. Outside, a black SUV idled on Ocean Avenue waiting to take Lopez to Disneyland for a restrained sixth visit of the summer.

Inside the park, Lopez likes to head to Pooh Corner in Critter Country, grab a Tigger Tail – four marshmallows dipped in caramel, coated with orange sugar, drizzled with chocolate and served on a stick – and lose himself in less popular attractions like the Enchanted Tiki Room.

Once this summer, he and a friend made a special trip to see Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln, and happily headed home after paying homage to the animatronic Abe.

He is 29. And yet, on a team whose 19-year-old point guard, Lonzo Ball, will be one of nine Lakers players 22 or younger when training camp begins next week, Lopez might be the biggest kid of them all.

Lopez said he has already established a connection with the Lakers’ young stars. He is excited to play with the pass-first Ball.

“I’m just going to wear this huge target instead of my (jersey number) ‘11’ and just be waiting for Lonzo to throw it,” Lopez said.

Just three years ago, Lopez, who had been an All-Star in 2013, was the youngest starter on a veteran Brooklyn Nets team that had just added Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to a veteran core of Deron Williams and Joe Johnson. Now he is among the oldest Lakers.

“It’s super weird to me,” he said.

Only Luol Deng, 32, recently signed Andrew Bogut, 32, and Corey Brewer, 31, are older than Lopez, and none of them figure to have as prominent a role.

Lopez arrived in a June 20 trade that allowed the Lakers to shed the burdensome financial obligation of Timofey Mozgov and the troubling attitude of former No. 2 overall pick D’Angelo Russell. The Lakers also picked up the late first-round draft pick that became rookie forward Kyle Kuzma.

When General Manager Rob Pelinka introduced Lopez, he said, “What today is not about is players we traded away. It’s not about creating cap space. It’s about this phenomenal human being and player that we’re so excited to have join the Lakers.”

Of course, it was those other things that generated the most interest. Not Lopez, phenomenal human or not.

The organization already boasts Ball, who is vastly more hyped; Brandon Ingram, who coaches believe could become an All-Star in future seasons; and Ivica Zubac, oft-hailed as the center of the future.

Still, by any objective measure, it is Lopez who is the Lakers’ best player, at least for now. Owed $22 million on the last year of the max contract extension he signed in 2015, he is also their highest-paid player.

In his first eight NBA seasons, Lopez made three shots from beyond the 3-point arc. Last season, he recast himself as the league’s premier floor-spacing big man and averaged 20.5 points while attempting more than six 3-pointers per game.

He made 134 of 387 3-point attempts, startlingly similar to Russell’s 135 of 384.

Under normal circumstances the arrival of a former All-Star center in the prime of his career would generate significant excitement.

However, Lopez’s pending free agency and the Lakers’ known interest in using every cent of their cap space to lure LeBron James and Paul George next summer has made Lopez something of an afterthought compared to the buzz around Ball and factors beyond this season.

“I’ve definitely noticed it,” Lopez said. “There’s lots of reasons obviously for that excitement, no question. But I’m a super unassuming guy myself, so I’m all right with that.”

He said “the variables and unknowns” will make the upcoming season “a fun process.”

The Lakers would love to see Lopez match his numbers from a year ago, assuming he stays healthy. Though Lopez has played at least 72 games in seven of his nine seasons, he missed all but five games in 2011-12 with a broken foot and all but 17 games two years later with a foot injury.

Some within the Lakers organization fear offseason back issues will follow Lopez into training camp, if not beyond. Those concerns factored into the team’s decision to sign veteran center Andrew Bogut earlier this week.

Last week, Lopez quickly dismissed any concerns about his health, saying, “I’ll be going at training camp for sure.”

He has been a regular presence at the near-daily workout sessions at the new UCLA Health Training Center, calling the workouts “amazing.” Never, he said, has he been around a team that has had such consistent offseason turnout from so many players.

“Another thing,” he said, “is how impressively quick this group has formed a pretty strong bond.”

The player-run workouts and scrimmages have been so regular and intense that, with the season approaching, Coach Luke Walton has had to insist that players take some days off to allow their bodies to recover.

“He’s had to close the gym off a few times,” Lopez said, “just to keep people from coming in, just officially locking up, no one’s allowed in.”

Walton becomes Lopez’s 10th coach in 10 seasons, a rate that Lopez joked must be an NBA record.

“It’s just cool being around him,” Lopez said. “I feel like he’s put a lot of trust in me in terms of being a vet on the team and going out there and being a leader and I think it’s an honor, I take a lot of pride in taking that responsibility that he’s given me.”

Lopez had not lived in Los Angeles since childhood, despite figuring that his love of Disney and show business would one day lead him back. Recently he and his older brother, Chris, drove around the family’s old neighborhood to see what had changed over the course of two decades.

By now, he is used to change, although throughout his career it has usually taken place around him. Now, he is the change. The other day, he caught himself staring at the Lakers logo on his shower shoes.

“I’m on the freaking Lakers,” he remembered thinking. “I grew up watching this team, grew up on Magic, Shaq, Kobe. All of those guys.”

Now, he is close enough with Johnson that in conversation he shortens “Magic” to “Madge.”

“Being such a big Lakers fan, I think I’m just so excited,” Lopez said.

The new-look Lakers first take the court on Sept. 30 against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Honda Center, just a few short miles east of Disneyland’s front gate.

If he plans it right, there might even be time to stop by for a Tigger Tail.