Officer? Maybe. Gentleman….

A few years back in the Kobe/Shaq championship era, during the obligatory “here are the celebrities in the stands” portion of any Lakers television broadcast, you’d get to a glimpse of Lou Gossett Jr. in and amongst your Jack and Denzel shots.

Not so much lately. The reason — he didn’t pay for his seats.

Which leads us to... the Lakers are suing Gossett for $40,000, the cost of two of those premium seats for the Lakers for the 2003 season. Well, technically L.A. Arena Funding Inc. is suing Gossett, that’s the company that handles ticket sales at Staples Center. It just sounds better to say it’s the Lakers.

Like most Angelinos, I’m not a Lakers season ticket holder because it’s a tad out of my price range. And by “tad” I mean way, way out of my price range. But if I don’t have to pay for them….