LALLos Angeles Lakers

Franchise history

When Bob Short relocated the Minneapolis Lakers to Los Angeles for the 1960-61 season, the team kept its incongruous "Lakers" name despite Southern California's dearth of actual lakes, becoming the NBA's first West Coast franchise. The early LA years were defined by Jerry West and, from 1968, Wilt Chamberlain, but the tandem repeatedly lost in the Finals to Boston before finally breaking through with the franchise's first Los Angeles title in 1972, a season that also produced a then-record 33-game winning streak. The team's signature identity arrived with the "Showtime" era: after drafting Magic Johnson first overall in 1979 and pairing him with veteran Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, coach Pat Riley's up-tempo Lakers won five titles in the 1980s, engaging Bird's Celtics in the decade's defining rivalry.

A leaner 1990s gave way to a third golden age when Phil Jackson took over a roster built around Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, producing a three-peat from 2000 to 2002, followed by a further pair of titles in 2009 and 2010 led by Bryant after O'Neal's departure. Following Bryant's 2016 retirement, the Lakers rebuilt around LeBron James (signed 2018) and Anthony Davis (acquired 2019), delivering the franchise's 17th championship in the pandemic-shortened 2020 "bubble" postseason. With 17 NBA titles (18 counting the 1948 NBL crown from the Minneapolis years), the Lakers trail only Boston.

Sources

• Los Angeles Lakers — Britannica
• Los Angeles Lakers — Wikipedia

NBA Champions won (12)

• 1971-72
• 1979-80
• 1981-82
• 1984-85
• 1986-87
• 1987-88
• 1999-00
• 2000-01
• 2001-02
• 2008-09
• 2009-10
• 2019-20

Runner-up finishes (14)

• 1961-62
• 1962-63
• 1964-65
• 1965-66
• 1967-68
• 1968-69
• 1969-70
• 1972-73
• 1982-83
• 1983-84
• 1988-89
• 1990-91
• 2003-04
• 2007-08

See the full nba champions list for the winner each of these years.