The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles that competes in the National Basketball Association (NBA), which was formerly called the Basketball Association of America (BAA). Since 1999, the Lakers have played their home games at Crypto.com Arena. [1] The Lakers' franchise was founded in 1947 in Minneapolis. The first owners purchased the disbanded Gems from Detroit, Michigan, then renamed and moved the team. It was in Minneapolis where the Lakers received their official title from Minnesota's nickname, Land of 10,000 Lakes. [2] The Lakers won five championships before relocating to Los Angeles for the 1960–61 NBA season. The Lakers went on to lose all of their six appearances in the NBA Finals in the 1960s, despite the presence of Elgin Baylor and Jerry West. In 1972, the Lakers compiled a 33-game winning streak, the longest streak in U.S. professional team sports, and won their sixth title, under coach Bill Sharman. [3] The Lakers' popularity soared in the 1980s when they won five additional championships during a nine-year span with the help of Hall of Famers Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy and coach Pat Riley, the franchise's all-time leader in both regular season and playoff games coached and wins. [4] [5] Two of those championships during that span were against their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics. With the help of Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, and Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson, the Lakers played in seven NBA Finals between 2000 and 2010, winning three of them consecutively from 2000 to 2002, losing the next two in 2004 and 2008, and winning in 2009 and 2010; the last three appearances were without O'Neal.
The Lakers hold records for having (at the end of the 2014–15 NBA season) the most wins (3,125), the highest winning percentage (.620), the most NBA Finals appearances (32) of any NBA franchise, second-fewest non-playoff seasons with seven and are tied with the Boston Celtics with the most NBA championships with 17. [6] They have won 60+ regular season games 11 times, trailing only the Boston Celtics in this category.
The team struggled during the mid to late 2010s, during which they suffered the longest playoff drought in franchise history, failing to qualify for the postseason for six seasons. Before that stretch, they had missed the playoffs only five times in their entire existence up to 2013.
The Lakers' fortunes turned around following the signing of LeBron James in the summer of 2018 and a trade for Anthony Davis in 2019. The team finished the 2020 regular season as the first seed in the Western Conference for the first time since 2010 and won the 2020 NBA Finals, their first championship since 2010.
ASG MVP | All-Star Game Most Valuable Player |
COY | Coach of the Year |
DPOY | Defensive Player of the Year |
Finish | Final position in league or division standings |
GB | Games behind first-place team in division [lower-alpha 1] |
L | Number of regular season losses |
EOY | Executive of the Year |
FMVP | Finals Most Valuable Player |
JWKC | J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship |
MVP | Most Valuable Player |
ROY | Rookie of the Year |
SIX | Sixth Man of the Year |
W | Number of regular season wins |
Note: Statistics are correct as of the end of the 2022–23 season.
NBL champions | NBA champions | Conference champions | Division champions | Playoff berth |
Note: Statistics are correct as of the 2023 NBA playoffs.
Statistic | Wins | Losses | Win% |
---|---|---|---|
Minneapolis Lakers regular season record (1948–1960) | 457 | 382 | .545 |
Los Angeles Lakers regular season record (1960–present) | 3,046 | 2,037 | .599 |
All-time regular season record (1948–present) | 3,503 | 2,419 | .592 |
Minneapolis Lakers post-season record (1948–1960) | 67 | 40 | .626 |
Los Angeles Lakers post-season record (1960–present) | 397 | 273 | .593 |
All-time post-season record (1948–present) | 464 | 313 | .597 |
All-time regular and postseason record | 3,967 | 2,732 | .592 |
Statistic | Wins | Losses | Win% |
---|---|---|---|
Minneapolis Lakers regular season record (1947–1948) | 43 | 17 | .717 |
Minneapolis Lakers postseason record (1947–1948) | 8 | 2 | .800 |
All-time regular and postseason record | 51 | 19 | .729 |
The Minnesota Timberwolves are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Timberwolves compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. Founded in 1989, the team is owned by Glen Taylor who also owns the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx. The Timberwolves play their home games at Target Center, their home since 1990.
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 league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their home games at Crypto.com Arena, an arena shared with the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers, the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association, and the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League. The Lakers are one of the most successful teams in the history of the NBA, and have won 17 NBA championships, tied with the Boston Celtics for the most in NBA history.
The Charlotte Hornets are an American professional basketball team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Hornets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division, and play their home games at the Spectrum Center in Uptown Charlotte. The Hornets are mainly owned by Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan, who acquired a controlling interest in the team in 2010.
The Celtics–Lakers rivalry is a National Basketball Association (NBA) rivalry between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Celtics and the Lakers are the two most storied franchises in the NBA, and the rivalry has been called the greatest in the NBA. The Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers have met a record 12 times in the NBA Finals, with their first such meeting being in 1959. They would both go on to dominate the league in the 1960s and 1980s, facing each other in the Finals six times in the 1960s, three times in the 1980s, and twice since the year 2000.
The IBM Award was an award given out to National Basketball Association players from 1984 to 2002. The award was sponsored and calculated by technology company IBM and was determined by a computer formula, which measured a player's statistical contribution to his team. The player with the best contribution to his team in the league received the award. The first recipient was Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers, and the final recipient was Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs.