The head coach for the defending NBA Champions is looking for a third shot at a three-peat and Phil Jackson knows what it will take to get there. "You just go about it and don't think about how difficult it is," Jackson said, "and play each game and don't worry about anything but that. It takes remarkable talent to be able to do it." Helping him will be the almost carbon copy of the team that helped him reach last year’s championship with the exception of role players on the bench. Gone are Jordan Farmar, D. J. Mbenga, Adam Morrison and Josh Powell. Replacing them are savvy veterans Steve Blake, Theo Ratliff and Matt Barnes.
With the Eastern Conference getting stronger, the championship will still have to go through the Western Conference and with the Spurs, Rockets and Mavericks all getting stronger, the West will be a tossup until the final game is played.
The 2009/10 Los Angeles Lakers is virtually the same lineup that won the NBA Title last season. The only changes made were the release of guard Sun Yue and Trevor Ariza signing with the Houston Rockets. Coaching wise, Assistant Kurt Rambis left to become the Head Coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Lakers have picked up where they left off and are leading the NBA with a 23-4 record with the Eastern Conference Celtics in hot pursuit with a 22-5 record. Will the team be able to best their 08/09 record of 65-17? Only time will tell. So make sure you get your Lakers tickets and cheer your team on into the playoffs.
The Lakers have been in Los Angeles since the start of the 1960/61 season. The same year the team selected Jerry West with the number 2 pick in the draft. West would team with future Hall of Famers Elgin Baylor and Gail Goodrich and a year later, Wilt Chamberlain.
Prior to the 1971/72 season, the franchise hired Bill Sharman a former professional baseball player who was coach of the ABA Utah Stars. Sharman would lead the team on a 33-game winning streak that shattered all previous NBA records. They also won 69 games, setting the record for most wins in a season. In the playoffs the Lakers took out the New York Knicks in five games to bring Los Angeles its first NBA Title. The 72/73 season saw a return to the championships and met the New York Knicks again in the finals. The Knicks would take revenge winning the series in five games 4 games to 1.
The Lakers would lose Wilt Chamberlain to retirement after a 15 year career and Jerry West, who due to injury, was forced to retire. The team would have to rebuild but what was to come no one had any idea. Prior to the beginning of the 75/76 season, Bill Sharman was replaced with Paul Westhphal and the team went on to win a league best 53 wins in the 76/77 season and beat the Warriors in the opening round of the playoffs. The Lakers were then knocked out of the playoffs by the Portland Trailblazers.
With the 1979 Draft, the Lakers chose 6’9” Earvin “Magic” Johnson from Michigan State and “Showtime” was born. Johnson led the Lakers to the NBA Championships as the team won 60 games in the regular season and ended the year with a six game series victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Johnson would win the first of many VMP awards as he finished the game with 42 points, 15 boards and 7 assists.
By the 1984/85 season, the Lakers were in full “Showtime” mode and won their Pacific Division 4 straight seasons. In the playoffs, the Lakers took the Boston Celtics in six games and became the first visiting team to ever win a championship there. The following season, the team started the season with a 24-3 record en-route to another 60+ win season. They were, however, taken out by the Houston Rockets “Twin Towers” and specifically Ralph Sampson who hit a 20-ft jump shot at the buzzer in game five in LA. The Showtime era came to a close with passing of the 87/88 season when the Detroit Pistons knocked them out of the playoffs in a quick four game series. Following that, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar announced his retirement as did Michael Cooper. The team fielded enough of a squad to make it to the 1991 Finals against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls beat them in five games, thus ending the Lakers “Showtime”.
The team acquired center Shaquille O’Neal in 1996 and the same year traded Vlade Divac to Charlotte for rookie Kobe Bryant and a new era was born. With the addition of former Bulls coach Phil Jackson to the fold. It would take until 1998 for the Lakers to gel enough to win another championship but they didn’t stop there. They returned in 2000, and repeated in 2001. When the team decided to begin rebuilding in 2004, they traded O’Neal to the Miami Heat for 3 players and a first round draft pick. The team also did not bring back Jackson. They instead hired former Houston Rockets Coach Rudy Tomjanovich who would only stay on for a portion of the season as he was forced to step down due to health issues. The team missed the playoffs for the 5th time in franchise history forcing the team in to the 2005 Draft Lottery
In that draft, the team selected Andrew Bynum. Phil Jackson resigned with the team and although the team was knocked out of the playoffs by the Phoenix Suns, the city knew that the team was destined for greatness soon. Bynum would continue to improve but succumb to a season ending injury in January. This forced the Lakers to trade for center Pau Gasol but it was a deal well worth it as the Lakers went on to a 57-25 record. They would make it back to the playoffs for the first time in 4 seasons but the Lakers would eventually lose to the Boston Celtics.
The 2008/09 opened with the Lakers on a terror. They would finish the series with at 65-17 record and march into the playoffs defeating the Utah Jazz 4-1, the Houston Rockets in 7 games and the Denver Nuggets in 6. In the Finals, the Lakers matched up against the Orlando Magic (who were fresh from upsetting the defending NBA Champs). It would take only 5 games for the Lakers to win their first title in seven years and Kobe Bryant was named the NBA Finals MVP for the first time in his already long career.
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