The
Los Angeles Lakers are a National Basketball
Association (NBA) team based in Los Angeles
, California
. The Lakers play their home games at Staples Center
, which they share with their fellow NBA rival, the
Los Angeles Clippers, and their
sister team, the Los Angeles
Sparks of the WNBA. The
Lakers are the current NBA champions after defeating the
Orlando Magic in the
Finals 4 games to 1. Basketball expert
John Hollinger of
ESPN
ranked the Lakers as the greatest NBA franchise of all time.
The
Lakers' franchise was founded in 1946 in Detroit
, Michigan
before
moving to Minneapolis
, where the team got its official title from the
state
's nickname,
"Land of 10,000 Lakes." The Lakers won five championships
before relocating to Los Angeles in the
1960–61 season. The Lakers lost
all of their eight appearances in the NBA Finals in the 1960s,
despite having help from
Elgin Baylor
and
Jerry West. In
1972, the Lakers won their sixth
title, first in Los Angeles, under coach
Bill Sharman.
The Lakers' popularity soared in the 1980s
when they won five additional championships during a nine-year span
with the leadership of Hall of Famers
Magic Johnson,
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy and coach Pat
Riley, the franchise's all-time leader in regular season game
wins and playoff games coached and wins. Two of those
championships during that span were
against their arch-rivals,
the
Boston Celtics. From
2000 to
2002,
the Lakers won three titles consecutively with the help of
Shaquille O'Neal,
Kobe Bryant, and Hall of Fame coach
Phil Jackson. After losing both the
2004 and
2008 NBA
Finals, the Lakers captured the championship for the 15th time
in
2009, defeating the
Orlando Magic four games to one.
The Lakers hold records for having (at the end of the
2008–09 season) the most wins
(2,970), the highest winning percentage (61.7%), the most NBA
Finals appearances (30), the second fewest non-playoff seasons with
five (
San Antonio Spurs have
four), and the second-most NBA championships with 15, behind the
Boston Celtics' 17. They also hold the record for compiling the
longest consecutive win streak (33) in
U.S. professional team sports
(also an
NBA
record) in the 1971–72 season.
14 Hall of Famers
have played for the Lakers, while four Hall of
Famers (John Kundla, Bill Sharman, Pat Riley and Phil Jackson) have
coached the team. Four Lakers (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic
Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant) have won the
NBA Most Valuable Player
(MVP) award for a total of 8 MVP awards.
Team history
1946–1959: Beginnings and Minneapolis dynasty
The Lakers began in 1946 when
Ben Berger
and
Morris Chalfen bought the Detroit
Gems of the
National Basketball
League for $15,000. The team was relocated to Minneapolis in
1947. The Lakers, who already had a solid roster with forward Jim
Pollard and playmaker Herm Schaefer, added center
George Mikan, who quickly became the most
dominant player in the game. With Mikan leading the way during
their first year, the Lakers won their division by 13 games with a
43–17 record. In the
1949 BAA Finals
the Lakers continued their dominance, beating the
Washington Capitols four games to two.
The following season, the team improved to 51–17, repeating as
champions. In the next year's playoffs, the team defeated the
Indianapolis Olympians in three games but lost to the
Rochester Royals in the next round.
In the
1951–52 season the
Lakers won 40 games, finishing second in its division. Facing the
New York Knicks in the
NBA Finals, the Lakers won in seven games.
With a 48–22 record in the season, the team went to the
NBA Finals again after defeating the
Fort Wayne Pistons in the Western
Finals. The team won their second straight championship over the
Knicks. Though Lakers star George Mikan suffered from knee problem
throughout the season, he was still able to average 18 points per
game.
Clyde Lovellette, who was
drafted in
1952 was able to help the
team win the Western Division, along with Mikan. The team was able
to win their third straight championship in the '50s when they
defeated the
Syracuse Nationals
in seven games. Following Mikan's retirement in the 1954 offseason,
the team struggled but still managed to win 40 games. Although
defeating the Royals in the first round, the Lakers were defeated
by the Fort Wayne Pistons in the next round. For the rest of the
fifties, the team failed to average above .500. However, they
returned to the Finals in 1958, only to be swept by the
Boston Celtics, marking the start of their
long rivalry.
1959–1974: Move to Los Angeles and Celtics rivalry
In their
last year in
Minneapolis, the Lakers went 25–50 and won the number two pick in
the
1960 NBA Draft. The team selected
Jerry West from
West Virginia
University. During the 1960 offseason, the Lakers became the
NBA's first West Coast team when the owner,
Bob Short, decided to move the team to Los
Angeles. Although the team featured Hall of Famers
Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, and
Gail Goodrich, the attendance fell
dramatically in their first five years in Los Angeles and the team
lost the NBA Finals four times to the Boston Celtics in five
seasons.
The Lakers moved to a brand-new arena,
The
Forum
, in 1967, after playing seven seasons at the
Los Angeles
Memorial Sports Arena
. That season saw the team repeating its
pattern, losing to the Celtics in the 1968 NBA Finals.
Hall of Famer Jerry West led the team to nine NBA Finals
appearances in the 60s and 70s.
On July 9, 1968, the team acquired
Wilt
Chamberlain from the
Philadelphia
76ers for Darrell Imhoff,
Archie Clark, and
Jerry Chambers. The Lakers and Celtics met
again in the
finals, and the Lakers
had the home court advantage against them for the first time. They
could not get past their rivals, however, and lost in seven games;
the Celtics emerged from the series with their 11th NBA
Championship in 13 seasons. Jerry West was named the first-ever
Finals MVP; this remains the
only time that a member of the losing team has won the award. In
1970 the team returned to
the finals, and for the first time in sixteen years, they did not
have to face the Celtics; instead the team met the New York Knicks,
who defeated them 4–3. The next season the Lakers were defeated by
the
Milwaukee Bucks, led by future
Laker
Lew Alcindor (now known as
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) in the Western Conference Finals.
The season brought several changes. Owner Jack Kent Cooke brought
in Bill Sharman as the new coach, and Elgin Baylor announced his
retirement early in the season after realizing that his legs were
not healthy enough. The team, however, still won 14 straight games
in November and 16 straight games in December. The team then won
three straight to open the year of 1972 but on January 9, the
Milwaukee Bucks ended the streak by defeating the Lakers, 120–104.
By winning 33 straight games, the Lakers notched the longest
winning streak of any team in American professional sports. The
team won 69 games that season, setting a new NBA record for wins in
a season, until the
Chicago Bulls won
72 games in . Chamberlain averaged a career-low 14.8 points but led
the league in rebounding with 19.2 per game. West led the league in
assists, with 9.7 assists per game, and averaged better than 25
points. At the end of the season, Bill Sharman was named NBA Coach
of the Year. The Lakers eventually made it to the
finals where they took revenge on the New
York Knicks by winning in five games, bringing the first NBA title
to Los Angeles.
During the
1972–73 NBA
season, the Lakers did not match their record from their
previous season, but they did clinch another Pacific Division title
by winning 60 games. Wilt Chamberlain, playing in his final season,
again led the league in rebounding. The team triumphed over the
Chicago Bulls after seven games during the conference semifinals
but then easily defeated the Golden State Warriors in the Western
Division Finals. The team then met the New York Knicks in the
1973 NBA Finals. The Lakers took the
first game by three points, but the Knicks took the series in five
games. Following the season, Wilt Chamberlain retired after a 15
year NBA career. For the , the team was hampered by the loss of
Jerry West, who played only 31 games before his legs finally gave
out. Gail Goodrich who averaged 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 win the
Pacific Division with a 47–35 record. The team advanced to the
playoffs but managed only one win against the Milwaukee Bucks in
the conference semifinals. Following the season, Jerry West
retired, ending his 14 year playing career.
1974–1979: Building "Showtime"

The Lakers acquired Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar in the 1970s.
After missing the playoffs in the
1974–75 season, the Lakers
acquired Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the league's premier big man at that
time. Abdul-Jabbar wanted out from Milwaukee, demanding a trade to
either New York or Los Angeles. He was eventually traded to the
Lakers for
Elmore Smith,
Brian Winters,
Junior Bridgeman, and
Dave Meyers. Abdul-Jabbar had an
MVP season for the Lakers in 1975–76, leading the league in
rebounding, blocked shots, and minutes played. The Lakers struggled
in January, with a 3–10 record. At season's end, Abdul-Jabbar won
his fourth NBA Most Valuable Player Award, but the team finished
out of the playoffs with a 40–42 record.
Jerry West replaced Bill Sharman as head coach during the
offseason. It took another MVP season from Abdul-Jabbar to carry
the team back to the top of the Pacific Division, as the Lakers
finished the 1976–77 season with a league-best 53–29 record. They
defeated the Warriors in a seven-game series to open the postseason
before being defeated by Portland in the Western Conference Finals.
During the offseason, the Lakers picked up
Jamaal Wilkes from Golden State and signed
first-round draft pick Norm Nixon. In the first two minutes of the
first game of the 1977–78 season, Abdul-Jabbar punched Bucks
Kent Benson for an overly aggressive
elbow and broke his hand. The team won 45 games despite not having
Abdul-Jabbar for nearly two months. During the 1978–79 season, the
team posted a 47–35 record but lost to the SuperSonics in the
semifinal round of the playoffs.
1979–1989: "Showtime"

180px-Earvin_"Magic"_Johnson_on_'07.jpg"
style='width:180px' alt="" />
Magic Johnson, along with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, led the
"Showtime" Lakers to five NBA titles in the 80s.
During the
1979 NBA Draft, the Lakers
had the first overall pick and selected 6'9"
Earvin Johnson from
Michigan State. The
Lakers won 60 games in Johnson's rookie year. The Lakers defeated
the
Philadelphia 76ers in game
six of the
1980 championship series
thanks to an MVP performance by the rookie Johnson, who started for
the injured Abdul-Jabbar. He finished with 42 points, 15 rebounds,
and seven assists en route to the Lakers' second championship in
Los Angeles. The 1980–81 season was a disappointment, though, as
the Lakers lost Magic Johnson for most of the season to a knee
injury. The team turned in a 54–28 record and finished second
behind the Phoenix Suns in the Pacific Division. But the Houston
Rockets, led by
Moses Malone, stunned
the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs.
Owner Jerry Buss fired coach Paul Westhead after the Lakers went
7–4 to start the 1981–82 season. Buss promoted assistant coach
Pat Riley to head coach on November 19 and
the team won 17 of its next 20 games. The Lakers took the Pacific
Division title and swept both the Phoenix Suns and the San Antonio
Spurs. The Lakers then stretched its postseason winning streak to
nine games by taking the first contest of the NBA Finals from the
76ers. The team won the Finals four games to two; the team's
playoff record that year was 12–2. On draft night in
1982, the Lakers had the first overall pick
and selected
James Worthy from
North Carolina.
The Lakers clinched the Pacific Division with a 58–24 record,
advancing to the 1983 NBA Finals by defeating Portland and San
Antonio in the first two rounds. The Sixers, however, won the
series and the championship in four straight games.
By the season, the Lakers' "Showtime" era was in full swing. The
team won the Pacific Division for the fourth straight year. The
Lakers lost game one of the NBA Finals by a lopsided score of
148–114, in what is now remembered as the "Memorial Day Massacre".
The Lakers were resilient and behind 37-year old Finals MVP
Abdul-Jabbar, they were finally able to defeat Boston in six games.
The team
won the title in the Boston Garden
, thus making the 1985 Lakers the only visiting team
to ever win an NBA championship there.

The Lakers drafted James Worthy first
overall in 1982.
In the 1985–86 season, they started 24–3 and finished with 62 wins,
clinching their fifth straight division title. The Houston Rockets,
however, defeated the Lakers in five games in the Western
Conference Finals. The Rockets won the series when
Ralph Sampson hit a 20–foot jumper as time
expired in game five at The Forum. Prior to the season, the Lakers
let go of Maurice Lucas, moving
A.
C. Green into
the starting lineup, and picked up Mychal Thompson from the
San Antonio Spurs. Johnson won his
first career NBA Most Valuable Player Award while leading the
Lakers to a 65–17 record, the second-best mark in franchise
history. Michael Cooper was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year.
The Lakers accumulated 65 wins, the second-most in franchise
history up to that point.
The Lakers met the Celtics in the NBA Finals by sweeping the Denver
Nuggets, losing just one game to the
Golden State Warriors, and then swept
the
Seattle SuperSonics in the
Western Conference Finals. The Lakers routed the Celtics in the
first two games of the Finals, and the teams then split the next
four contests, giving the Lakers their second championship in three
seasons. The series was highlighted by Johnson's running "baby
hook" shot to win game four at Boston Garden with two seconds
remaining. Johnson was named the NBA Finals MVP, to go with his
regular-season MVP trophy. At the Lakers' championship celebration
in Los Angeles, coach Riley brashly declared that the Lakers would
repeat as NBA champions in the next season. During the
1987–88 season, the Lakers took
their seventh consecutive Pacific Division title, and subsequently
met the
Detroit Pistons in the
1988 NBA Finals. The Lakers took the
series in seven games, and James Worthy's
triple double earned him a Finals MVP award.
In the
1988–89 season,
the Lakers won 57 games. They swept the playoffs up till the
NBA Finals, facing the Detroit
Pistons again. The Pistons took advantage of the sudden injuries of
Byron Scott and Magic
Johnson and took the series in four games.
1989–1999: Post-"Showtime" dry spell
On June 28, 1989, after twenty professional seasons, Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar announced his retirement. During the 1990 offseason,
1987
Defensive
Player of the Year winner
Michael
Cooper also announced his retirement. The team made another
Finals appearance in
1991 but lost
to
Michael Jordan's
Bulls in five games. On November 7, 1991,
Magic Johnson announced he had tested positive for
HIV and that he would retire immediately. In their first
season without Magic, they only won 43 games. In addition, they
were eliminated after only four games in the first round. During
the season, the team won only 33 games and missed the playoffs for
the fourth time in franchise history.
For the next two seasons, the team made the playoffs but were
eliminated in the second and first round, respectively. During the
1996 off-season, however, the Lakers signed
Shaquille O'Neal and acquired rookie
Kobe Bryant from the
Charlotte Hornets for
Vlade Divac. They used their 24th pick in the
draft to select
Derek Fisher. During the season, the team
traded
Cedric Ceballos to the
Phoenix Suns for
Robert Horry.
O'Neal led the team to a 56–26 record, their best effort since
1990–91, despite missing 31 games with a knee injury. O'Neal
averaged 26.2 ppg and 12.5 rpg and finished third in the league in
blocked shots (2.88 bpg) in 51 games. The Lakers defeated the
Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the
1997 NBA Playoffs. O'Neal scored 46 points
in Game 1 against the Trail Blazers, marking the highest
single-game playoff scoring output by a Laker since Jerry West
scored 53 against the Celtics in 1969. In the next round, the
Lakers lost four games to one to the
Utah
Jazz.
In the
1997–98 season,
O'Neal and the Lakers had the best start in franchise history,
starting 11–0. O'Neal missed 20 games due to an abdominal injury.
All season, the Lakers battled with Seattle for the Pacific
Division title. In the final two months of the season, the Lakers
won 22 of their final 25 games. With their late-season surge, the
Lakers overtook Seattle atop the Pacific at 61–21. The Lakers
defeated Portland three games to one, in the best-of-five
first-round. In the next round, the team faced Seattle. Although
Seattle won the first game, the Lakers responded with four straight
wins and took the series. The Lakers were swept in four games by
the Utah Jazz, being one series short of reaching the Finals for
the first time since 1991.
During the middle of 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. The team finished 31–19 in
the shortened season, which was fourth in the Western Conference.
The team defeated the Houston Rockets in the first round of the
playoffs but were defeated by the
San
Antonio Spurs in the next round.
1999–2004: Bryant, O'Neal, and Jackson
Prior to the
1999–2000
season, the Lakers hired former
Bulls coach
Phil
Jackson as head coach and re-signed veterans
Brian Shaw,
John
Salley,
Ron Harper, and
A. C. Green, who was with the Lakers during the
"Showtime" era. The team also moved to a new arena, the Staples
Center.
At the start of the 1999–2000 season, they won 31 of their first 36
games. They won 67 games, the most games since they won 65 in the
1986–87 season. The team eliminated the
Sacramento Kings and the
Phoenix Suns in the first two rounds of the
playoffs. After taking a three games to one lead in the Western
Conference Finals, the Trail Blazers came back to force a game
seven. The team was down by 15 points but went on a 19–4 run to tie
the game. The Lakers won 89–84 and went to the NBA Finals. The team
defeated
Reggie Miller and the
Indiana Pacers four games to two in
the
2000 NBA Finals to win their
first title since 1988. The following season, the team won 11 fewer
regular season games. The team, however, swept the first three
rounds of the playoffs, beating the Trail Blazers in three and the
Kings and Spurs in four. The team met
Allen Iverson and the
Philadelphia 76ers in the
2001 NBA Finals; the Sixers took game one in
overtime. But the team came back, taking four in a row to clinch
their second straight title. The team had a 15–1 record in the
postseason, the best in NBA history. The Lakers won 58 games in the
2001–02 season but the
Sacramento Kings clinched the
Pacific Division.
In the playoffs, the team eliminated the
Portland Trail Blazers in the first
round three games to none, and the San Antonio Spurs four games to
one in the second round. The team faced the Sacramento Kings in the
Western Conference Finals; the series went to seven games, the last
of which ended in a six-point overtime win in favor of the Lakers.
The Lakers then achieved a three-peat by sweeping the
New Jersey Nets in the
NBA Finals.
In the beginning of the
2002–03 season, they started
11–19. The team went 39–13 for the rest of the season and won 50
games. The team faced the
Minnesota Timberwolves in the first
round of the
2003 NBA Playoffs;
the Lakers took the series in six games. The team was eliminated by
the
San Antonio Spurs four games
to two in the Western Conference Semifinals. The following
offseason, the Lakers signed
Karl Malone
and
Gary Payton. Three of the "big
four", however, struggled with injuries: Shaquille O'Neal suffered
from a strained calf, Karl Malone with an injured knee and Kobe
Bryant with a shoulder injury. Ending up with a 56–26 record, they
clinched the
Pacific Division
and entered the playoffs as the number two seed. They defeated the
Houston Rockets, Spurs, and
Timberwolves in the first three rounds of the
2004 NBA Playoffs, before they succumbed
to the
Detroit Pistons in five games
in the
2004 NBA Finals.
2004–2007: Rebuilding
During the 2004 offseason, the team entered the rebuilding phase
when O'Neal was traded to the
Miami Heat
for
Lamar Odom,
Brian Grant,
Caron
Butler and a first-round draft pick. The team also traded
Rick Fox and
Gary
Payton to the Boston Celtics, for
Chris
Mihm,
Marcus Banks, and
Chucky Atkins. Derek Fisher, frustrated with
losing playing time, opted out of his contract and signed with the
Warriors. As Phil Jackson was not brought back to coach the team
for the
2004–05 season,
the team hired
Rudy Tomjanovich.
Almost only Kobe Bryant remained on the team; after key injuries to
Bryant and Odom they finished with a 34–48 record in 2005, missing
the playoffs for the fifth time in their franchise history. Since
the team failed to make the playoffs, they were in the 2005 Draft
Lottery, their first since
1994.
With the
tenth overall pick, the Lakers selected Andrew Bynum, a center from St. Joseph High School
in Metuchen, New Jersey
. The team also traded Caron Butler and
Chucky Atkins to the Washington Wizards for
Kwame Brown and
Laron
Profit. Jackson returned to coach the team after Rudy
Tomjanovich resigned midway through the previous season. On January
22, 2006, Kobe Bryant scored 81 points against the
Toronto Raptors, the second-highest total in
NBA history. Ending the season with a 45–37 record, the team made
the playoffs for the first time since 2004. After taking a three
games to one lead in the first round, the Phoenix Suns came back to
take the series in seven games. In the following season, they won
26 of their first 39 games. For the rest of the season, they lost
27 of their last 43 games, including a seven game losing streak.
The team was eliminated in the first round by the Phoenix Suns
again, four games to one.
2007–present: Return to championship form
After re-acquiring Derek Fisher, the Lakers started the
2007–08 season fairly well,
supported by the flourishing Andrew Bynum. However, Bynum's season
ended to injury in January, leading the Lakers to trade
Kwame Brown,
Javaris Crittenton,
Aaron McKie, the draft rights to
Marc Gasol, and two first round draft picks to
the
Memphis Grizzlies for
Pau Gasol and a second round draft choice. After
the trade, the Lakers went on to clinch the first seed in the
Western Conference with a
57–25 record. Kobe Bryant was awarded the
NBA Most Valuable Player
Award, becoming the first Los Angeles Lakers player to have won
the award since
Shaquille O'Neal
won the award in
2000.
The Lakers went to the
playoffs and
defeated the
Denver Nuggets in four
games, the
Utah Jazz in six games, and the
defending champion
San Antonio
Spurs in five games. They entered the NBA Finals for the first
time in four years, facing their long-time rivals, the Boston
Celtics, whom they had not played in the Finals in 21 years. The
Lakers eventually lost the series in six games.
In the
2008–09 NBA
season, the Lakers returned to championship form. Los Angeles
finished with a 65–17 record, easily winning the Pacific Division
and clinching first place in the Western Conference. After
eliminating the
Utah Jazz 4–1, they needed
7 games to fight off the
Houston
Rockets and six to defeat the
Denver
Nuggets, to win the Western Conference Finals. The Lakers'
quest for another title was successfully completed, as they
defeated the
Orlando Magic in the
2009 NBA Finals in five games, and
won their 15th title, their first in seven years. Kobe Bryant was
named the NBA Finals MVP for the first time in his career.
Lakers-Celtics Rivalry
The Lakers have had a long rivalry with the
Boston Celtics. They have met in the NBA
Finals 11 times with the Celtics winning nine times and the Lakers
twice. The first meeting in the Finals was in
1959. Despite being swept by the Celtics in
1959, the Lakers managed to keep every game close. The teams met
six more times in the sixties, with the Celtics winning each time.
The teams renewed their Finals rivalry in the 1980s, meeting three
times (1984, 1985, and 1987). The 1984 series was hyped by the
media as Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson. Their most recent meeting in
the finals was in
2008, where the
Celtics defeated the Lakers in six games to clinch their
seventeenth title.
Fanbase
Given the
team's proximity to Hollywood
, the large Lakers fanbase includes many
celebrities, most of whom can regularly be seen at the Staples Center
during home games. Jack Nicholson, for example, has held season
tickets since the 1970s. From 2002 and 2007 the team averaged just
over 18,900 fans, which was still in the top ten in the NBA. The
team sold out every home game during the 2007–08 season.
Their television ratings are higher than other NBA teams; the 2008
NBA Finals between the Lakers and Celtics drew a 9.3 rating, which
was higher than the
2007 NBA Finals.
According to
Forbes magazine, the
Lakers are the second most valuable basketball franchise in the
United States, valued at approximately $584 million, surpassed only
by the
New York Knicks.
Name, logo and uniforms

Los Angeles Lakers Wordmark
The Laker nickname came from the state of Minnesota being the
Land of 10,000 Lakes. The team's colors are purple, gold
and white. The Lakers logo consists of the team name, "Los Angeles
Lakers" written in purple on top of a gold basketball. Purple
uniforms are used for road games and gold uniforms are used for
home games. The team also wears white jerseys for Sunday and
holiday home games.
Image:LakersHome.png|
Home
Image:LakersAway.png|
Away
Image:LakersHomeWhite.png|
Alternate
Season-by-season records
Since the Lakers were established in 1948, the team has only missed
the NBA playoffs five times. The team has 15 NBA titles and has
appeared in the NBA Finals 15 other times. These appearances
include eight NBA Finals appearances in the 80s. The best record
posted by the team was 69–13, in 1972; the worst record was 19–53,
in .
The Lakers are one of only 3 teams to have never lost 60 games in a
season. The other teams are the
New York
Knicks and the
New Orleans/Utah
Jazz.
Franchise and NBA records
Home arenas
The
Lakers play their home games at Staples Center
, located at L.A.
Live
in Downtown Los Angeles
. The Staples Center opened in 1999 and seats
up to 18,997 for Laker Games. The Staples Center is also home to
fellow NBA team Los Angeles Clippers, their sister team of the
Women's National
Basketball Association, the Los Angeles Sparks, the
National Hockey League's
Los Angeles Kings and the
Arena Football League's
Los Angeles Avengers. The arena is
owned and operated by
AEG and L.A. Arena Company.
Before
moving to Staples Center, the Lakers played their home games at
The
Forum
in Inglewood, California
for 31 years. The team played their
home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports
Arena
in their first seven years in Los Angeles.
While the
team played in Minneapolis, the team played their home games at the
Minneapolis
Auditorium
, from 1947 and 1960.
Players
Current roster
Hall of Famers
The
Lakers have have 18 Hall of Famers
(15 players, two head coaches and one broadcaster)
who contributed to the organization. The Hall of Famers
include (in alphabetical order):
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,
Elgin Baylor,
Wilt
Chamberlain,
Gail Goodrich,
Connie Hawkins,
Magic Johnson,
Clyde Lovellette,
Slater Martin,
Bob
McAdoo,
George Mikan,
Vern Mikkelsen,
Jim
Pollard,
James Worthy and
Jerry West.
Chick
Hearn was the Lakers broadcaster for 42 seasons until he died
in 2002. Pat Riley and Phil Jackson each coached the Lakers to four
NBA titles in the 1980s and
the 2000s respectively.
NBA Draft
The Lakers have had three
first overall picks in
their history: Elgin Baylor (selected in
1958), Magic Johnson (selected in
1979) and James Worthy (selected in
1982). The Lakers have also had three
Lottery picks in their history:
George Lynch (selected
twelfth overall in
1993),
Eddie Jones (selected tenth overall
in
1994) and
Andrew Bynum (selected tenth overall in
2005). Other draft picks include
Jerry West, Gail Goodrich in the 1960s, Michael Cooper,
Norm Nixon in the 1970s, A. C. Green and Vlade
Divac in the 1980s,
Elden Campbell,
Nick Van Exel, Derek Fisher, and
Devean George in the 1990s, and
Luke Walton,
Saša Vujačić, and
Ronny Turiaf in the 2000s.
Head coaches
There have been 21
head coaches for the
Lakers franchise. The franchise won their first five
NBA championships, from
1949 to
1954,
all while coached by
John Kundla.
Pat Riley was the franchise's all-time
leader in both regular season and playoff games coached and wins.
Though the regular season record was broken by
Phil Jackson in 2009, Riley still holds the
playoff wins and games coached record.
Riley was inducted
into the Basketball
Hall of Fame
in 2008. John Kundla,
Bill Sharman, and Phil Jackson have also all
been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach.
George Mikan,
Jim
Pollard,
Jerry West, Pat Riley,
Magic Johnson, and
Kurt Rambis have all played and head coached for
the Lakers. Jackson, in his second term, has been head coach of the
Lakers since the
2005–06
season.
Media
Chick Hearn was the team's broadcaster
for 41 years until his death in 2002. Hearn broadcasted 3,338
consecutive games between November 21, 1965 and December 16, 2001.
Paul Sunderland, who had filled in
for a couple of games while Hearn recuperated in
2001–02, was named the permanent
play-by-play announcer.
Stu Lantz was retained as the
color commentator. Sunderland's contract
expired in the summer of 2005, and the team chose not to renew it.
Joel Meyers moved in alongside Lantz as
the TV announcer, while
Spero Dedes and
former Laker player
Mychal Thompson
on the radio. Those remain the current teams for television and
radio.
As of the
2009–10 season,
Lakers radio broadcasts are heard on
KSPN
(Los Angeles
ESPN Radio affiliate) in
English and
KWKW in Spanish.
KLAC
had the
team's radio broadcast rights from the 1976–77 season until the 2008–09 season.
Telecasts
are split between KCAL-TV
(road games) and Fox Sports Net West (home games),
unless they are chosen for national broadcasts on ABC. KCAL has been the Lakers'
over-the-air television broadcaster since 1977, dating back to when
the station was the
RKO General-owned
KHJ-TV, which is longer than any other station currently airing NBA
games.
Prior to KHJ, Laker games were televised on
KTLA
. The team games are broadcasted in
High Definition on
FSN West HD, and on KCAL HD.
References
- "Tracey Reavis. "The Nicknames". The Official NBA
Encyclopedia (3rd Edition). ISBN 0385501307. New York:
Doubleday, 2000. pg. 95.
External links