When Bob Sepulveda, the longstanding sales manager at Advantage Boats in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., informed me that the company was wrapping up a Los Angeles Lakers-themed 34 Party Cat powered by twin Mercury Racing 565 engines, I immediately thought of the Hummer H2 I wrote about in an ultimate tow vehicles story nearly a decade ago for Powerboat magazine. The feature included details on the purple and yellow Hummer with a photo of it and the Advantage 28 Party Cat it pulled.

The latest 34 Party Cat from Advantage Boats features a Los Angeles Lakers theme. Photo by Tom Leigh/Tommy Gun Images

I don’t remember many of the stories I wrote for the defunct magazine, but because that Hummer was featured on the cover, the article still stands out in my mind. I also recalled that the owner of the 28-foot Advantage deck boat, Hector Galvin, was a nice guy and the biggest Lakers fan I’d ever met. Of course it turns out that Galvan was the customer building Mamba Out, the new 34 Party Cat named in honor of Kobe Bryant, who retired following the 2015-2016 NBA season.

“I sold the 28 over Labor Day weekend in 2015 and a couple of months later I was at Advantage talking with Bill and Bob about building a new one,” said Galvan, who lives in Southern California with his wife, Connie, and their four children. “We loved our boat—we owned it since 2005—and had a great time with it. I had no regrets, but the timing was right to sell it and get into a new one.”

Read more: Meet the Lakers-Inspired Mamba Out Advantage 34 Party Cat