The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference.
With over seven decades of history, the Los Angeles Lakers have established themselves as one of the most iconic and successful franchises in the NBA. Their journey, marked by championships, legendary players, and memorable moments, has captivated fans worldwide.
Unless you live under a rock, it’s safe to assume that you have heard of the Lakers. We’ll detail things about the Lakers that even the most die-hard fans might not be aware of.
The franchise began in 1946 as the Detroit Gems of the National Basketball League (NBL). After one season, a new ownership relocated the team to Minneapolis, Minnesota and renamed the team as the Minneapolis Lakers.
Inspired by Minnesota's nickname, "Land of 10,000 Lakes", the team rechristened themselves the Lakers. Minneapolis sportswriter Sid Hartman played a key, behind-the-scenes role in helping put together the deal and later the team.
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The Lakers won the 1948 NBL championship before joining the rival Basketball Association of America, where they won the 1949 BAA championship.
The NBA, which is the largest nationally recognized basketball league in the United States, does not recognize the Lakers’ win in 1948 as part of the NBL; however, their win in 1949 as part of the BAA is recognized by the NBA as an official championship.
Hall of Famer George Mikan (#99) led the Lakers franchise to their first five NBA championships. As the franchise had the worst record in the NBL the previous season, it got the first pick in the 1947 Professional Basketball League of America dispersal draft, which they used to select George Mikan.
In 1948, the Lakers moved from the NBL to the Basketball Association of America (BAA), and Mikan's 28.3 point per game (ppg) scoring average set a BAA record.
After winning multiple championships, the Lakers took a turn for the worse and had a few years in the cellar. In 1958, their luck changed when they drafted future Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor and returned to championship form.
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The following year, after seeing the success of other sports teams who had made the move to the West Coast, the Lakers moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles.
In their last year in Minneapolis, the Lakers went 25-50. On January 18, 1960, the team was coming off a loss and traveling to St. Louis when their plane crash-landed. Snow storms had driven the pilot 150 miles (240 km) off course when he was forced to land in a cornfield. No one was hurt.
Their record earned them the number two pick in the 1960 NBA draft. The team selected Jerry West from West Virginia University.
During the 1960 off-season, the Lakers became the NBA's first West Coast team when owner Bob Short decided to move the team to Los Angeles.
Led by Baylor's 34.8 ppg and 19.8 rpg, Los Angeles won 11 more than the year before in West's first season. On November 15 that season, Baylor set a new NBA scoring record when he scored 71 points in a victory against the New York Knicks while grabbing 25 rebounds. In doing so, Baylor broke his own NBA record of 64 points. Despite a losing record, the Lakers made the playoffs.
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The Lakers made the NBA Finals six times in the 1960s, but lost every series to the Celtics, beginning their long and storied rivalry.
Led by Baylor and West at 38.3 and 30.8 ppg respectively, the Lakers improved to 54-26 in 1961-62, and made the finals. Los Angeles won 53 games in 1962-63, behind Baylor's 34.0 ppg and West's 27.1 ppg but lost in the NBA Finals in six games to the Celtics.
After falling to 42-38 and losing in the first round of the 1964 NBA playoffs to the Hawks, the team won 49 games in 1964-65.
Wilt Chamberlain played for Los Angeles for five seasons during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
On July 9, 1968, the team acquired Wilt Chamberlain from the Philadelphia 76ers for Darrell Imhoff, Archie Clark, and Jerry Chambers. In his first season as a Laker, Chamberlain set a team record by averaging a league-leading 21.1 rpg. West, Baylor, and Chamberlain each averaged over 20 points, and Los Angeles won their division. The Lakers and Celtics again met in the finals, and Los Angeles had home court advantage against Boston for the first time in their rivalry.
The 1971-72 season brought several changes. Owner Jack Kent Cooke brought in Bill Sharman as head coach, and Elgin Baylor announced his retirement early in the season after realizing that his legs were not healthy enough. Sharman increased the team's discipline. He introduced the concept of the shootaround, where players would arrive at the arena early in the morning before a game to practice shots.
They won 14 straight games in November and all 16 games played in December. They won three straight to open the year of 1972 but on January 9, the Milwaukee Bucks ended their winning streak by defeating the Lakers, 120-104. By winning 33 straight games, Los Angeles set a record for longest winning streak of any team in major American professional team sports. The Lakers hold the record for NBA's longest winning streak, 33 straight games, set in 1971-72.
The Lakers won 69 games that season, which stood as the NBA record for 24 years until the Chicago Bulls won 72 games in 1995-96. Chamberlain averaged a low 14.8 points but led the league in rebounding at 19.2 a game. West's 9.7 assists per game (apg) led the league, he also averaged more than 25 points, and was named MVP of the 1972 NBA All-Star Game. The team failed to score 100 points just once all year, and at the end of the season, Bill Sharman was named Coach of the Year.
The Lakers went on to reach the finals against the New York Knicks where they would avenge their 1970 finals loss by defeating them 4 games to 1.
The Lakers won 60 games in the 1972-73 season, and took another Pacific Division title. Wilt Chamberlain, playing in his final season, again led the league in rebounding and set the NBA record for field-goal percentage at 72.7% which stood for several decades. The team defeated the Chicago Bulls in seven games in the conference semifinals, then the Golden State Warriors in five in the Western Division Finals. They played the New York Knicks in the 1973 NBA Finals.
During the 1973-74 season, the team was hampered by the loss of West, who played only 31 games before his legs gave out. Goodrich, averaging 25.3 points, helped the team to a late-season surge. Trailing the Golden State Warriors by three games with seven left to play, the Lakers rallied to finish 47-35 and win the Pacific Division. They made the playoffs but managed just one win against Milwaukee in the conference semifinals.
After missing the playoffs in the 1974-75 season, the Lakers acquired Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who had won three league MVPs by that time. Abdul-Jabbar wanted out of Milwaukee, demanding a trade to either New York or Los Angeles. He was traded for Elmore Smith, Brian Winters, Junior Bridgeman, and Dave Meyers.
In the first two minutes of the first game of the 1977-78 season, Abdul-Jabbar punched Bucks center Kent Benson for an overly aggressive elbow and broke his hand. Two months later, a healthy Abdul-Jabbar got into an altercation with Houston Rockets center Kevin Kunnert after a rebound.
Two big changes came in 1979; first, Jerry Buss purchased the Lakers, and pioneered a vision of basketball as entertainment as well as sport. In the 1979 NBA draft, Los Angeles selected 6-foot-9-inch (2.06 m) point guard Magic Johnson from Michigan State with the first overall pick.
Second, the Lakers drafted Magic Johnson first overall in the 1979 NBA draft. It took Johnson's teammates time to acclimate themselves to his passing ability, as his "no-look" passes often caught them unaware. Once they adjusted, his passing became a key part of Los Angeles' offense.
The combination of Johnson, a prodigy point guard, and dominant center in Abdul-Jabbar provided the Lakers with superstars to anchor their roster. The Lakers won 60 games in Johnson's rookie year, and defeated the Philadelphia 76ers in six games in the 1980 NBA Finals.
The promotion of head coach Pat Riley in 1981 and addition of forward James Worthy through the 1982 draft established the Lakers as an NBA powerhouse throughout the 1980s. Los Angeles drafted James Worthy first overall in 1982. The franchise won five championships in a nine-year span, including two out of three marquee Finals matchups against the Celtics.
In the 1983-84 season, Los Angeles went 54-28, and played Boston in the Finals for the first time since 1969. The Lakers won two of the first three games. Using the past year's Finals defeat as motivation, the team won the Pacific Division for the fourth straight year and lost just two games in the Western Conference playoffs. In the NBA Finals, the Celtics were again the Lakers' final hurdle.
In the 1985-86 season, the Lakers started 24-3 and went on to win 62 games and their fifth straight division title. The Rockets, however, defeated the Lakers in five games in the Western Conference Finals. Prior to the 1986-87 season, the Lakers moved A.C.
Looking to make good on Riley's promise in the 1987-88 season, the Lakers took their seventh consecutive Pacific Division title with a 62-20 record. They swept the Spurs in the first round of the Western Conference Finals before pulling out a tough seven-game series win over the Utah Jazz led by youngsters Karl Malone and John Stockton. A seven-game Western Conference finals win over the Dallas Mavericks propelled the Lakers to the NBA Finals once again. In their seventh trip to the Finals in nine years, they met the Detroit Pistons.
In the 1988-89 season, Los Angeles won 57 games and their eighth consecutive Pacific Division crown. They swept through the playoffs defeating Portland, Seattle, and Phoenix.
Following the 1989 Finals, on June 28, 1989, after 20 professional seasons, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar announced his retirement.
The Lakers still cruised through the Pacific Division, winning their ninth consecutive division crown with a 63-19 record. However, after beating the Rockets in the first round, they lost four games to one in the second round of the playoffs to the Suns. Riley announced he was stepping down after the season citing burnout, and was replaced by Mike Dunleavy. Riley's departure received a mixed reaction from the players.
The 1990-91 Lakers failed to win the Pacific Division for the first time in 10 years, but still finished with a 58-24 record. After cruising through the Western Conference playoffs, the Lakers found themselves in the NBA Finals once again, their ninth trip to the Finals in 12 years.
After Riley departed and Abdul-Jabbar, Johnson, and Worthy retired, the Lakers struggled in the early 1990s.
In their first season without Johnson, the team won 43 games to earn the eighth seed in the Western Conference playoffs. The Lakers were defeated in the first round by Portland. The Lakers would lose 43 games in 1992-93 under Randy Pfund, their first losing season since 1976. The Lakers would still make the playoffs, and would become the first eighth seed to win the opening two games on the road against a number one seed when they took a 2-0 lead against Phoenix. They lost the next two games at home however, then game five in Phoenix in overtime.
During the 1993-94 season, Pfund was fired during the season that would result in the Lakers failing to make the playoffs for the first time since 1976.
It was not until 1996 when the team traded with the Charlotte Hornets for the draft rights to Kobe Bryant and signed center Shaquille O'Neal that the Lakers returned to dominance during the early 2000s. Shaquille O'Neal (left), and Kobe Bryant (right), helped the Lakers win three straight NBA titles.
During the 1996 off-season, the Lakers acquired 17-year-old Kobe Bryant from the Charlotte Hornets for Vlade Divac; Bryant was drafted 13th overall out of Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, Pennsylvania in that year's draft, by Charlotte.
In the 1997-98 season, O'Neal and the Lakers had the best start in franchise history, 11-0. O'Neal would miss 20 games on the season due to an abdominal injury. Los Angeles battled Seattle for the Pacific Division title most of the season. In the final two months, the Lakers won 22 of their final 25 games, finishing 61-21, but still finished second to Seattle in the standings. The Lakers defeated Portland three games to one in the first round to advance to face Seattle.
During the 1998-99 season, All-Star guard Eddie Jones and center Elden Campbell were traded to the Charlotte Hornets. The team also acquired J. R. Reid, B. J. Armstrong, and Glen Rice. Head coach Del Harris was fired in February after a three-game losing streak and replaced on an interim basis by former Laker Kurt Rambis. The team finished 31-19.
The superstar duo, along with Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson, led the Lakers to three consecutive championships between 2000 and 2002, securing the franchise's second "three-peat".
The dynamic "Shaq-and-Kobe" era ended when the Lakers traded away O'Neal after the team lost to the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 Finals.
It was not until the Lakers traded for Pau Gasol that Bryant and Jackson returned to the NBA Finals, losing to the Celtics in 2008 but winning championships in 2009 and 2010. Jackson retired in 2011, and the Lakers endured their longest playoff drought in franchise history. Gasol departed in 2014, and Bryant retired in 2016.
In 2018, LeBron James - arguably the greatest player ever - joined the Lakers in free agency. After a down year marred by injuries, the Lakeshow then acquired Anthony Davis.
The Lakers’ logo hasn’t changed much since the 1940s. The original Lakers’ logo featured gold stars, a basketball, and the state of Minnesota. When the Lakers landed in Los Angeles in 1960, they came with a brand new logo to represent their new hometown. The new Lakers logo in 1976 added a brighter touch to the previous logo. While the Lakers current logo (implemented in 2001) is definitely more modern than its predecessor, the basic theme is the same.