BREAKING NEWS: The three standout Lakers players have been suspended after it was discovered that they…

Based in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Lakers are a professional basketball team representing the United States. The Lakers are a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference and play in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA, the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women’s National Basketball Association, and the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League all share Crypto.com Arena, the home arena for the Lakers.[9] With 17 NBA titles, the Lakers are tied with the Boston Celtics for the most in NBA history and are among the league’s most successful teams ever.[10] More recently, in 2023, the Lakers won the NBA’s first-ever In-Season Tournament.

The franchise got its start in 1947 when it acquired the Detroit Gems of the National Basketball League (NBL), a team that had folded. The new team, known as the Minneapolis Lakers, started playing in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[11] The Lakers, led by star George Mikan, were once a part of the National Basketball League (NBL). They won the 1948 NBL championship before switching to the rival Basketball Association of America, where they would go on to win five more titles.[12] Following Mikan’s retirement and financial difficulties in the late 1950s, they moved to Los Angeles prior to the 1960–61 season.

Los Angeles, led by Hall of Famers Elgin Baylor and Jerry West, advanced to the NBA Finals six times in the 1960s but fell short against the Celtics in each series, sparking the start of a legendary and enduring rivalry. Under the direction of new head coach Bill Sharman, the Lakers won their sixth NBA championship—and first in Los Angeles—in 1972 after acquiring four-time MVP Wilt Chamberlain in 1968. The team acquired superstar Kareem after West and Chamberlain retired.

Abdul-Jabbar, the three-time MVP of the Laker team. Despite the team’s failure to make it to the Finals in the late 1970s, two significant developments in 1979 would usher in a new era of prosperity for the team. First, when Jerry Buss bought the Lakers, he introduced the idea that basketball games should be seen as both athletic and entertainment spectacles.[13] Second, in the 1979 NBA draft, Magic Johnson was selected first overall by the Lakers.