Los Angeles Lakers Research Paper

The Los Angeles Lakers are a professional basketball team located in Los Angeles, California. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association, better known as the NBA. They are a part of the leagues’ Western Conference Pacific Division. The Los Angeles Lakers play their home games at the Staples Center located in Downtown, Los Angeles. The arena is shared with the NBA’s Los Angeles Clipper, The Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, and the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL. The Lakers are one of the most successful teams in the history of the NBA. They have won 16 NBA championships, being the 2nd most of any other NBA franchise.

The Los Angeles Franchise has a long and rich history through different leagues and states. The franchise began with the purchase of a disbanded team in 1947, the Detroit Gems, of the then National Basketball League or NBL. Ben Berger and Morris Chalfen purchased the team for $15,000. The new team was moved and began playing in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was named the Minneapolis Lakers in honor of the state’s nickname, “Land of 10,000 Lakers”. The Lakers won the 1948 NBL championship before joining the rival Basketball Association of America (BAA), which would later become the National Basketball Association (NBA). After the teams’ financial struggle, they relocated to Los Angeles before the 1960-1961 season. The team then acquired another MVP player in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but even with his talent, they were unable to make the finals in the late 1970’s.

Then in the 1980’s the “Showtime Lakers” were born, led by future Hall of Fame coach Pat Riley.

They were nicknamed “Showtime” due to the fast-break offense led by Magic Johnson. They would go on to win five NBA Championships in a nine year span, including their first ever against their rivals The Boston, Celtics in

1985

The Los Angeles Lakers made the NBA finals six times in the 1960’s, but lost all six series to the Boston Celtics, beginning their long and historic rivalry. In 1968, the franchise acquired four-time MVP of the NBA, Wilt Chamberlain. The Lakers won their sixth NBA title in 1972, and finally their first one in Los Angeles.

The team struggled early in the 1990’s before acquiring Shaquille O’Neal from the Orlando Magic, and trading with the Charlotte Hornets in the draft for Kobe Bryant in 1996. Led by these two superstars and another future Hall of Fame coach, Phil Jackson, the Lakers would return to being on top of the NBA world. The Los Angeles, Lakers won three consecutive NBA titles between 2000 and 2002. They appeared in the NBA Finals in 2004 and 2008 losing to Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics. The Lakers would win two more championships in 2009 defeating the Orlando Magic, and in 2010, defeating the Boston Celtics, which would be their most recent.