Los Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the National Basketball Association’s highest-profile teams. Like the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League, the Lakers are synonymous with glamour. The purple-and-gold uniforms, the hordes of celebrity spectators regularly found in the stands, the “Showtime” teams of the 1980s – all add to the glamorous mystique of the team. When you’re blinded by the glitz of L.A.’s primary hoops team, it’s difficult to remember that the Lakers’ roots go back to the Midwest.
The team we now know as the Lakers began in 1944 when a National Basketball League team in Detroit was purchased and relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota. The state is known as the land of 10,000 lakes, hence the name Minneapolis Lakers.
The Lakers have a long-standing tradition of great big men, including the man generally regarded as the league’s first great big man, George Mikan.
At 6 feet, 10 inches tall, George Mikan moved with the agility of a much smaller man, and with the paucity of very tall players in the league, Mikan dominated for years. Led by Mikan, the new Minneapolis Lakers won the NBL championship in the 1947-1948 season.
The Lakers moved to the Basketball Association of America (the precursor to the NBA), along with three other NBL teams, in 1948. They won the BAA championship in 1949, led, once again, by Mikan, who played in the Finals series with a broken wrist. When the BAA merged with the NBL to form the NBA, the Lakers won the first NBA Finals.
Predictably, the Minneapolis domination of the league ended when George Mikan retired in 1954. Six years later, the Lakers moved to Los Angeles, becoming the first west coast team in the NBA. The L.A. Lakers were good but not dominant, until they acquired their next great big man, Wilt Chamberlain, in 1968.
Chamberlain, considered by many to be the most dominant big man in history, brought L.A. its first title, in a five-game defeat of the New York Knicks in the 1971-71 season. The next season, the Knicks returned the favor, beating the Lakers in five.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, formerly known as Lew Alcindor, was the Lakers’ third great big man, acquired from Milwaukee in 1975. He had several promising seasons in L.A., but they didn’t become the Showtime Lakers until the Lakers drafted Earvin Johnson in the 1979 draft.
Johnson had an immediate impact on the Lakers. Together with Abdul-Jabbar, he led L.A. to the 1980 NBA title with a six-game win over the Philadelphia 76ers. During that series, Abdul-Jabbar was injured, and Magic played center in Game Six. Johnson scored 42 points and grabbed 15 rebounds.
The Lakers of the 1980s – dubbed “Showtime” for their flashy style of play – won five NBA titles while engaged in a fierce rivalry with the Boston Celtics. For their part, the Celtics, led by Larry Bird, won three titles during that time span.
The Lakers’ fortunes took a downward turn in 1989 when Abdul-Jabbar retired after 20 years in the league. Magic Johnson led the Lakers to a Finals appearance in 1991, only to be beaten by Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Johnson was diagnosed with HIV later that year, and retired in November.
In 1996, the Lakers traded for their next great big man, Shaquille O’Neal, and traded Vlade Divac to the Charlotte Hornets for the rights to rookie Kobe Bryant.
O’Neal and Bryant immediately made the Lakers a Western Conference contender, but they weren’t able to get over the championship hump until the 1999-2000 season, when the team hired Phil Jackson. The team immediately responded to Jackson’s offbeat coaching style and his championship pedigree (he had won six titles with the Chicago Bulls), winning the NBA title the next three seasons.
A loss to the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 Finals, coupled with personality conflicts between Bryant, O’Neal, and Jackson, caused a breakup of the mini-dynasty. Shaq was traded to the Miami Heat and Jackson did not return to the team for the next season.
Jackson soon returned replacing Rudy Tomjanovich, but the Lakers did not return to title contention until the 2007-08 season, when they acquired Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies. Bryant and Gasol led the Lakers to the 2008 NBA Finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics in six games.
The Lakers enter the 2008-09 season filled with optimism. Their two top players, Bryant and Gasol, squared off against each other in the 2008 Olympics gold-medal game, but they return as teammates, hoping to accomplish what they very nearly achieved last season.
