Los Angeles Lakers

32 NBA Finals appearances, 17 NBA titles and a record 33 consecutive wins. These numbers naturally belong to one of the most successful teams in basketball history. We're talking about the Los Angeles Lakers. They have now captured their 17th title and are now level with the Boston Celtics for the most titles won. These are mostly highs in the club's history, but they have certainly had their lows too.

Los Angeles Lakers championships

The then Minneapolis Lakers won the 1947-1948 championship in the NBL (National Basketball League). In the 1948-1949 season, they also became champions in another league called the BAA (Basketball Association of America). In the first five years of the new league (today's NBA), they won no fewer than four titles. Lakers fans then had to wait until 1972 for the next championship. In 1979, Earvin “Magic” Johnson made his debut and they won a title once again. In the 1980s, the Los Angeles Lakers reached the Finals seven times and won four of them. They didn't make it back to the Finals until the 1999-2000 season. From then on, they won not one, not two, but three titles in a row. The Lakers started the 2008-2009 season as title favorites. They more than lived up to that status by reaching the playoffs without any real trouble and even winning the title. 12 October 2020 was the day the Los Angeles Lakers won the 17th title in the club's history.

History of the Los Angeles Lakers

It all started in 1947 when Ben Berger and Morris Chalfen bought the then Detroit Gems from Maury Winston for US$15,000. They then moved to Minneapolis, changed their name and became the Minneapolis Lakers. The club's name was based on Minnesota's nickname, “Land of 1000 lakes”. That's how the name Lakers came about. They became the Los Angeles Lakers when they moved to Los Angeles in 1960.

Kobe Bryant

In his twenty-year career, he played only for the Los Angeles Lakers and won the title five times. Kobe Bean Bryant was born in Philadelphia and is the son of former NBA player Joe Bryant. In 1996, he was selected in the draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. With the Lakers, he won three titles in a row. In the 2007-2008 season, Kobe Bryant received the MVP award (Most Valuable Player). On 27 February 2012, he took Michael Jordan's All-Star Game record. In the 14 games he had played up to that point, he scored 271 points. On 1 December 2014, he set another record: he became the first player in the NBA to score more than 30,000 points and dish out 6,000 assists.