It is hard not to talk about Los Angeles Lakers when people discuss about the NBA (short for National Basketball Association). The Lakers is consider by many as one of the greatest sports team ever and it was the home of many great basketball players such as Jerry West, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and the of course Kobe Bryant. And Lakers is one of the few history deep team in NBA. However, Lakers’ great history did not start at Los Angeles, it was originally based at Minnesota Minneapolis from 1947 to 1959 at which they played for the NBL and the BAA and it was one of the best team at its time. Many people refer to the Lakers in Minnesota as the Minneapolis Dynasty due to its dominance at the league between the years 1947 to the 1959, during which Lakers have won 6 titles including one three-peat. And its has one of the most dominate player in the NBA, the center of the Lakers at the time, George Mikans who set multiple record in the league, and establish the importance of superstar center for the Los Angeles Lakers even till this day. After Mikans retired at 1954 the Lakers was struggling to win games in general, until the year 1958 when Lakes selected Elgin Baylor at the Draft, who have become one of the legendary player for Los Angeles Lakers. He was name NBA rookie of the year and also a co-MVP of the 1959 NBA All-Star Game. However, his most significant contribution of that year was bringing Lakers into the finals. Despite losing to the Celtics in the finals, which later become a rivalry, it was the first time since Mikans retired that Los Angeles Lakers have reach the Playoff Finals.
In 1960, what was known as the Minneapolis Lakers have move to Los Angeles, and they also draft Jerry West that year who was better known for being the NBA logo. Between the year 1960 to 1968 which Jerry West was playing along side Elgin Baylor and together the dual brought the Lakers to the Playoff Finals multiple times but always lost to the Boston Celtic, and this was the origin of the infamous Lakers-Celtic rivalry. Boston Celtic to this day is still consider the main nemesis of the Los Angeles Lakers, many of the fans in this paradigm still dislike the Celtic from the bottom of their heart. And in some extreme case, Celtic fans’ would be afraid to wear their fan’s wear in the street of LA because people would look at them funny. At the year 1968, Lakers acquired Philadelphia 76ers’s big man Wilt Chamberlain in a trade. Wilt is famous for setting multiple highest score per game record, including the only 100 points game ever recorded. However, despite having three super stars Lakers still fell short in the playoff finals to Boston Celtic. Jerry West was named the First Final MVP, and it was the only occasion that the reward was given to the member of the losing team. And during the 5 years that Wilt, Jerry and Elgin had played together they have only won 1 title, which is in 1972.
After the retirement of the three LA superstars, Lakers began to build what we have come to know as the ShowTime era. They began by acquire Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, current holder of most point in career, who was able to lead the Lakers to the playoff for multiple years. However, it wasn't until they acquire Magic Johnson in the 1979 NBA draft that the Showtime era began. Magic’s ability to pass the ball and see the floor was unparalleled. In his rookie year, Magic and Kareem help the Lakers won 60 games during the regular season and won the 1980 Playoff Finals. In 1982 Lakers selected James “Big Game” worthy, but eventually lost that year to the 76ers. During the time between 1979 and 1989 Lakers have won 5 championships under Kareem and Magic. And many time they faced the Boston Celtic in the playoff. Because of the rivalry between Lakers’ Magic Johnson and Boston’s Larry Bird in their NCAA, the rivalry between Lakers and Boston intensified and become fuel sources that help bring the NBA back to popularity. NBA before the magic-bird rivalries were going down hill, mainly due to the idea the NBA are a black man’s sport and are mostly played by black man. However, with the introduction of Larry Bird and the rivalry between him and Magic help bring the NBA back to popularity. To many, Chicago Bull’s Jordan was considered the biggest star of the NBA but not many people know that it was Magic’s Lakers and Larry’s Celtic that help revive the NBA. And still to this day Magic Johnson is consider the greatest point guard to ever play the game.
After the show time era ended, Lakers went on a dry spill for nearly 10 years; when Lakers acquire Shaq O’Neal and Kobe Bryant in 1996 that brought the Lakers back into Champion form. But despite great player that was in the Lakers team it was until 4 years later that Lakers start to win Championship. In 2000 Lakers hired Chicago bull’s head coach Phil Jackson, who had already won 6 championships. This move help Lakers won championship that year and the following two years. Lakers during that era was the most dominate team of the NBA league before Shaq O’Neal and rising star Kobe Bryant, what we refer to as the OK duo. During that time Lakers were refer to as the purple and gold dynasty, and Lakers was the team to beat. During the dynasty era Lakers defeated Reggie Miller’s Indiana Pacer in 2000, Allen Iverson’s 76er in 2001 and New Jersey Nets in 2002. For each consecutive championship O’Neal was the Finals MVP, which made him the only one after Michael Jordan that was able to win three consecutive finals MVP. This event had brought the fans joy and pride. We were happy because we are finally winning again because that is what the team was all about and proud because we were the top dogs of the league for three years in a row. We were proud to wear our colors in the street to show off our love for the team. However, in 2002 Lakers lost to the San Antonio Spurs in second round of the playoff. And during 2003 Season, Lakers acquire Karl Malone and Gary Payton in hope of getting another Ring. However, due to sexual assault case on Kobe and the injures between 3 of the 4 superstar, Karl, O’Neal, and Kobe, Lakers eventually fell short at the playoff finals to Detroit Piston. After the Season is over, O’Neal was traded to Miami due to what many assume as the feud between him and Kobe Bryant. Phil Jackson also left the team because of the frustration he had with Bryant. This was a tremendous blow to the Lakers fan because we were the no.1 contender of the league with 4 superstars and yet we still lost. Not only that, we even lost two foundation of the team, head coach Phil Jackson, and Shaq O’Neil. Lakers fan were sad and disappointed by the end of the season, we felt that this is the end of the gold and purple dynasty, as we know it. And we were unsure when will we be back to the top of the league again.
Since then Lakers enter into a rebuilding phase in which it is mostly a One Man’s show, the Kobe Bryant show. And later down the road Lakers acquire Andrew Bynum in a draft. Phil Jackson return in 2006 to replaces Rudy Tomjanovich, and the team re-acquiring Derek Fisher and traded for Pau Gasol in 2007 season. Lakers went on a dominant roll during the regular season in 2007 and finish as the first seed in western conference and Bryant was name as the league MVP. This brought them back into the championship shape and went on defeat Denver, Jazz, and Spurs in the Western conference, but eventually lost to the big three of Celtics in game 6. However, in 2008 season, Lakers went onto the playoff and defeating the Orlando Magic in game five of the playoff finals and Kobe Bryant was name the Finals MVP for the first time in his career. The following year, Lakers added Metta World Peace, who was known as Ron Artest at that time and they finish with the best record of the western conference, and was able to won the Playoff Finals against the Celtic in a legendary 7 game series where Ron Artest was the hero of the game in game 7. Bryant again was named the finals MVP, despite his poor shooting display in game 7.
The following year Lakers was defeated by Dallas Mavericks in a four games sweep of the second round of the playoff, and was deny the chance of possible three-peat. Phil Jackson, after the season, announce his retirement. He was known as the greatest head coach in NBA history who has 12 rings (1 as a player) and 3 three-peat. After Jackson retired, Lakers owner Jimmy Buss hired former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown as the new coach, which were perceived as a bad choice to many fans. We also traded the former six man of the year Lamar Odom to Dallas Mavericks. During the first year of Brown’s reign Lakers was able to go back into the playoff but they eventually lost in 2nd round of Playoff. During the tenure ofJimmy Buss, Lakers switched 3 head coach and was progressively worse each year. We were the bottom of the league for last 3 consecutive years which gave us three number 2 picks. Kobe evetually retired during these dry runs, on his final game against the Jazz he scored 60 points. He is the only player to ever do that in the last game of their career. After he's retirement Lakers went on a full rebuild mode but Jimmy buss made some horrible decision such as drafting D-Lo and signing Tim Mozgov for a ridiculous amount of money. However, with the recently firing of Mitch Kupcheck and Jim Buss, the Lakers are heading towards the right direction under Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka. The signing of Lonzo Ball and the clearing of the cap space in anticipation of next year’s free agency are the most exciting. Lets hope that Lonzo together with BI can help bring Lakers back into Glory. Kyle Kuzma is also a player that im looking out for.
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