Los Angeles Lakers

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 team, the Los Angeles Clippers, and their sister team, the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA.

The Lakers' franchise was founded in Detroit before moving to Minneapolis, where the team got its official title from the state's nickname, Land of 10,000 Lakes, and won five league championships within the various leagues before locating to Los Angeles. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Lakers popularity soared, which helped them become one of the most successful franchises in the NBA with superstar players Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and coach Pat Riley winning five titles in that span, with three championship series against their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics. The Lakers are notable for having (at the end of the 2007–08 season) the most wins (2,905), the highest winning percentage (61.5%), the most finals appearances (29) of any NBA franchise, and the second most championships (14, behind the Boston Celtics' 17). The Lakers are generally regarded as one of the NBA's most successful franchises. They hold the record for the longest consecutive win streak (33) in U.S. professional team sports (also an NBA record) beginning on November 5, 1971 and ending on January 7, 1972. The franchise has only missed the NBA playoffs five times.

The Lakers began in 1944 when Ben Berger and Morris Chalfen bought the Detroit Gems of the National Basketball League for $15,000. The team was relocated to Minneapolis for the 1947 season. 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 easily won their division by 13 games with a 43–17 record. In the 1949 BAA Championship the Lakers continued their dominance, beating the Washington Capitols three games to one.The following season, the team improved to 44–24, winning the Western Division. In the Playoffs, the team defeated the Indianapolis Olympians in three games, but lost to the Rochester Royals in the next round.


The Lakers name came from a type of cargo ship used on the Great Lakes and the Mississippi river., The nickname also comes 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.

The Lakers have a long and historic rivalry with the Boston Celtics, who met in the NBA Finals 11 times, the Lakers only won two of them (1985, 1987). The first meeting in the finals was in 1959, the Lakers had low expectations, but still managed to keep every game close in the Finals. However the Celtics managed to sweep the Lakers.[ The teams would go on to meet five more times in the 60s, the Celtics winning each of them. The rivalry continued with renewed fervor in the 1980s when both teams were strong, and was personified as Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson. The effect the rivalry had on the league is remarkable, since the two teams only met in an 80's Finals three times (1984, 1985, and 1987) and only played each other twice each season.The combined successes of the two storied franchises make up for half (31 of 62) of all NBA Championships ever won.

Their most recent meeting was in 2008, where the Celtics defeated the Lakers in six games, to clinch their seventeenth title.
The Lakers have had 15 Hall of Famers (14 players and one broadcaster) who contributed to the Lakers. 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 41 years until he died in 2002.