A familiar set of keys is coming back to Lakers games. Dieter Ruehle is returning as the team’s organist and musical director, bringing him back to the Lakers a decade after he stepped away following a 16-year run that ended shortly after Kobe Bryant’s final game in 2016.
Ruehle will keep his job as the Dodgers’ organist and also remain the musical director and organist for the LA Kings. The move puts him back with the Lakers while leaving him in place across a Los Angeles sports portfolio that has long carried his sound.
His Lakers résumé already covers one of the franchise’s most successful stretches. Ruehle was on the organ for five championships and seven NBA Finals appearances from 2000 to 2010. He was also at the keyboard for the Kings’ Stanley Cup wins in 2012 and 2014.
Since moving to the Dodgers full-time in 2016, Ruehle has been part of three World Series titles, five World Series appearances and eight trips to the National League Championship Series. He also served as the organist at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, where the United States won Olympic gold in men’s hockey for the first time since the 1980 "Miracle on Ice."
For Lakers fans, the return brings back a piece of the game-night feel from the Shaquille O’Neal and Bryant championship years, and later the Bryant-Pau Gasol era. For fans who have followed Ruehle through the Dodgers and Kings, it means another chance to hear one of the most distinctive musical voices in the city.
That’s because the music is never just filler with Ruehle. His song choices have become part of the show, whether he’s nudging a crowd into a chant, tipping his cap to a player or slipping in a wink for the fans paying attention.
A few years ago, he played “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” at a Dodgers game that went past midnight, then followed it with Chicago’s “Saturday in the Park” because the game had rolled into Saturday. Billy Joel’s “The Longest Time” also found its way into the mix.
Lon Rosen, the longtime Dodgers executive who became the Lakers’ president of business operations earlier this year, first gave Ruehle a professional break with the Los Angeles Lazers indoor soccer team in 1984, when Ruehle was 15. Rosen later summed up what makes him such a fixture in Los Angeles sports.
“I love what he does,” Rosen told me. “He really adds so much to the experience.
It’s not just background music. You look forward to hearing what he’s going to play next.”
In Other News...
Kings Fans Will Notice One Big Change On Broadcasts This Season
Kings fans tuning in this season will notice a fresh look before the puck even drops, as the clubs television coverage has moved to a rebranded network now under Angels control. The new setup gives the Kings a dedicated home for their broadcasts, with longtime play-by-play voices John Kelly and Josh Schaefer back on the mic and Ed Barnes overseeing production as executive producer.
The bigger on-air shift comes in the analyst chair, where Jim Fox is easing back on travel duties and the team is leaning on familiar faces to help fill the gaps. Former Kings Daryl Evans, Tony Granato, Alec Martinez and Jarret Stoll are all part of the rotation, giving the booth a mix of perspective from different eras while keeping the broadcast rooted in the franchises own history. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Showed Something Important In A Tough Road Opener
The Kings home opener had the kind of feel that can tell a team a lot early in a season: plenty of pace, plenty of contact, and not nearly enough finish. Los Angeles dropped a 2-1 decision to the Florida Panthers, with Darcy Kuemper turning aside 26 shots and the Kings leaning into the physical side of the game even as their scoring chances went begging.
What will linger most is how the margin tilted on a few mistakes and one timely Florida response, the sort of thing that tends to show up in tight games against experienced opponents. Los Angeles already knows it has work to do on the offensive side and in the discipline department, and the larger challenge now is making those lessons fit cleanly into a new system before the schedule starts demanding results. [Read more 🡒]