Back Los Angeles Lakers AN لوس أنجلوس ليكرز Arabic لوس انجليس ليكرز ARZ Los Angeles Lakers AST Los-Anceles Leykers Azerbaijani Los Angeles Lakers BAN Los Angeles Lakers BCL Лос-Анджэлес Лэйкерс Byelorussian Лос-Анджэлес Лэйкерз BE-X-OLD Лос Анджелис Лейкърс Bulgarian

Los Angeles Lakers

"Lakers" redirects here. For the NBA G League team, see South Bay Lakers. For other uses, see Laker (disambiguation).

Los Angeles Lakers
2024–25 Los Angeles Lakers season
Los Angeles Lakers logo
ConferenceWestern
DivisionPacific
Founded1946
HistoryDetroit Gems
1946–1947 (NBL)
Minneapolis Lakers
1947–1948 (NBL)
1948–1960 (NBA)
Los Angeles Lakers
1960–present[1][2][3]
ArenaCrypto.com Arena
LocationLos Angeles, California
Team colorsPurple, gold, black[4][5][6]
     
Main sponsorBibigo[7]
PresidentJeanie Buss
General managerRob Pelinka
Head coachJJ Redick
OwnershipBuss Family Trusts (majority)[8]
Jeanie Buss (controlling owner)[9]
Philip Anschutz, Edward P. Roski, and Patrick Soon-Shiong (minority)
Affiliation(s)South Bay Lakers
Championships18
NBL: 1 (1948)
NBA: 17 (1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1972, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2010, 2020)
Conference titles19 (1972, 1973, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2020)
Division titles34
NBL: 1 (1948)
NBA: 33 (1950, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2020)
NBA Cup titles1 (2023)
Retired numbers13 (8, 13, 16, 22, 24, 25, 32, 33, 34, 42, 44, 52, 99)
Websitewww.nba.com/lakers
Association jersey
Team colours
Association
Icon jersey
Team colours
Icon
Statement jersey
Team colours
Statement
City jersey
Team colours
City
Classic jersey
Team colours
Classic

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. The Lakers play their home games at Crypto.com Arena, an arena they share with the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association, and the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League.[10] The Lakers are one of the most successful teams in the history of the NBA with 17 championships, the second most in the league behind the Boston Celtics.[11]

The franchise began in 1946 as the Detroit Gems of the National Basketball League (NBL).[12] After one season, a new ownership relocated the team to Minneapolis, Minnesota,[13][12] and renamed the team as the Minneapolis Lakers.[14] The Lakers won the 1948 NBL championship before joining the rival Basketball Association of America, where they won the 1949 BAA championship. Following the merger of the NBL and the BAA into the NBA in 1949, the Lakers won four of the next five NBA championships.[15] After struggling financially in the late 1950s, they relocated to Los Angeles before the 1960–61 season.

The Lakers made the NBA Finals six times in the 1960s, but lost every series to the Celtics, beginning their long and storied rivalry. In 1968, the Lakers acquired four-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Wilt Chamberlain, and won their sixth NBA title in 1972, led by coach Bill Sharman. After the retirement of Chamberlain, the team traded for superstar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Two big changes came in 1979, first, Jerry Buss purchased the Lakers, and pioneered a vision of basketball as entertainment as well as sport.[16] Second, the Lakers drafted Magic Johnson first overall in the 1979 NBA draft. The combination of Johnson, a prodigy point guard, and dominant center in Abdul-Jabbar provided the Lakers with superstars to anchor their roster. 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. The franchise won five championships in a nine-year span, including two out of three marquee Finals matchups against the Celtics. The Lakers were defeated by their Boston archrivals in the 1984 Finals, but triumphed over them in 1985 and 1987.

After Riley departed and Abdul-Jabbar, Johnson, and Worthy retired, the Lakers struggled in the early 1990s. 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. 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".[17] 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. The 2010 Finals marked the latest matchup of the Lakers and Celtics, with Los Angeles winning its 16th title.

Jackson retired in 2011, and the Lakers endured their longest playoff drought in franchise history. Gasol departed in 2014, and Bryant retired in 2016. After rebuilding seasons with young, highly rated prospects, the Lakers signed superstar LeBron James in 2018.[18] In 2019, the team traded several of those prospects for star big man Anthony Davis.[19] The Lakers—led by James, Davis, and coach Frank Vogel—won the team's 17th championship in 2020, tying the Celtics for the most titles until 2024.[20]

The Lakers hold the record for NBA's longest winning streak, 33 straight games, set in 1971–72.[21] 26 Hall of Famers have played for Los Angeles, while four have coached the team. Abdul-Jabbar, Johnson, O'Neal, and Bryant won a combined eight NBA MVP awards with the Lakers.[22]

  1. ^ "Lakers Season by Season Recap". Lakers.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Retrieved May 14, 2024.
  2. ^ "Franchise History–NBA Advanced Stats". NBA.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Retrieved May 13, 2024.
  3. ^ "NBA.com/Stats–Los Angeles Lakers seasons". Stats.NBA.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Archived from the original on December 2, 2022. Retrieved December 2, 2022.
  4. ^ "Media Guidelines And Policies" (PDF). 2022–23 Los Angeles Lakers Media Guide (PDF). NBA Properties, Inc. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 8, 2022. Retrieved November 8, 2022.
  5. ^ "Lakers Uniform Schedule". Lakers.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Archived from the original on November 9, 2022. Retrieved November 8, 2022.
  6. ^ "Los Angeles Lakers Reproduction and Usage Guideline Sheet". NBA Properties, Inc. Archived from the original on April 29, 2018. Retrieved February 8, 2018.
  7. ^ "Lakers x Bibigo". Lakers.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. September 21, 2021. Archived from the original on September 22, 2021. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
  8. ^ "Team Directory" (PDF). 2020–21 Los Angeles Lakers Media Guide (PDF). NBA Properties, Inc. December 20, 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 3, 2021. Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  9. ^ "Agreement puts Jeanie Buss in control of Los Angeles Lakers for life". NBA.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. March 27, 2017. Archived from the original on January 30, 2024. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  10. ^ "About Us". CryptoArena.com. L.A. Arena Company, LLC. Archived from the original on March 1, 2023. Retrieved March 1, 2023.
  11. ^ Reynolds, Tim (October 11, 2020). "Sweet 17: Lakers tie Celtics for most NBA championships". NBA.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Archived from the original on March 1, 2023. Retrieved March 1, 2023.
  12. ^ a b Sopan Deb (June 18, 2024). "The Celtics Have 18 Championships. The Lakers? 17. (And Maybe One More.)". The New York Times. Retrieved September 8, 2024. A truly terrible N.B.L. team was the Detroit Gems, which played for only one season, going 4-40 in 1946-1947. Benny Berger, a Minneapolis businessman, purchased the Gems and relocated the franchise to Minneapolis. He renamed them the Lakers.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference adieu was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Jim Peltz (December 14, 2014). "Name that team: How major pro sports franchises came by their names". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 8, 2024. When the Detroit Gems were moved to Minneapolis before the 1947-48 season, they settled on Lakers because of Minnesota's thousands of lakes.
  15. ^ Barreiro, Dan. "George Mikan: The First Icon". From the Official NBA Encyclopedia, Third Edition. NBA.com. Archived from the original on November 9, 2012. Retrieved November 20, 2010.
  16. ^ Ostler, Scott (February 19, 2013). "Remembering Jerry Buss and 'Showtime'". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on May 29, 2023. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  17. ^ Pearlman, Jeff (2021). Three-Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty. Mariner Books. ISBN 978-0-358-62796-8. OCLC 1269511608. Archived from the original on January 31, 2024. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
  18. ^ Youngmisuk, Ohm (July 1, 2018). "LeBron James agrees to four-year, $153.3 million deal with Lakers". ESPN. Archived from the original on April 10, 2020. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
  19. ^ Wojnarowski, Adrian (November 13, 2019). "Sources: Lakers reach deal for Pelicans' Davis". ESPN. Archived from the original on July 2, 2019. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
  20. ^ Ganguli, Tania (October 11, 2020). "LeBron James leads Lakers to 17th championship and beats Heat in six games in Finals". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
  21. ^ "All-Time Longest Win Streaks in NBA History". NBA.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. March 14, 2013. Archived from the original on February 18, 2018. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
  22. ^ "Most Valuable Player Award Winners". basketball-reference.com. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved July 7, 2008.

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