Los Angeles Lakers

About 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 fellow NBA team the Los Angeles Clippers, and their sister team the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, of those in the sport of basketball.

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 5 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 3 championship series against their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics. The Lakers are notable for having (at the end of the 2005–06 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' 16). 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 (as well as the NBA's record) beginning on November 5th, 1971 and ending on January 7, 1972. The franchise has only missed the NBA playoffs 5 times. According to Forbes magazine, the Lakers are the second most valuable basketball franchise in the United States, valued at approximately $568 million, surpassed only by the New York Knicks.

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. As the Gems had by far the worst record in the NBL, the Lakers had the first pick in the 1947 dispersal draft of players from the Professional Basketball League of America, which they used to select George Mikan, later to become arguably the greatest center of his time. With Mikan, new coach John Kundla and an infusion of former University of Minnesota players, the Lakers won the NBL championship in that 1947-48 season and joined three other NBL teams in jumping to the Basketball Association of America, where they promptly won the 1948-49 BAA championship. The NBL and the BAA merged to become the NBA in 1949. The Minneapolis Lakers were one of the dominant teams of the fledgling NBA. With Hall of Famers George Mikan, Vern Mikkelsen, Jim Pollard, Slater Martin, and Clyde Lovellette, they were the NBA's first "dynasty", winning five championships in six years (1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954).