The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. The Lakers play their home games at Crypto.com Arena, an arena shared with the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers, the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association, and the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League. The Lakers are one of the most successful teams in the history of the NBA, with 17 NBA championships, tied with the Boston Celtics for the most in NBA history.[11] The Lakers were the champions of the NBA's inaugural In-Season Tournament in 2023.
The franchise began with the 1947 purchase of a disbanded team, the Detroit Gems of the National Basketball League (NBL). The team began playing in Minneapolis, Minnesota, calling themselves the Minneapolis Lakers.[12] The Lakers won the 1948 NBL championship before joining the rival Basketball Association of America, where they won five of the next six championships [13] After struggling financially in the late 1950s,they relocated to Los Angeles before the 1960–61 season.
The Lakers made the NBA Finals five six times in the 1960s, but lost every series to the Celtics, beginning their long and storied rivalry. In 1968, the Lakers acquired four-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP)Wilt Chamberlain, and won their sixth NBA title in 1972, led by coach Bill Sharman. After the retirement of Chamberlain, the team traded for superstar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Two big changes came in 1979, first,Jerry Buss purchased the Lakers, and pioneered a vision of basketball as entertainment as well as sport. [14] Second, the Lakers drafted Magic Johnson first overall in the 1979 NBA draft. The combination of Johnson, a prodigy point guard, and dominant center in Abdul-Jabbar provided the Lakers with superstars to anchor their roster. The promotion of head coach Pat Riley in 1981 and addition of forward James Worthy through the 1982 draft established the Lakers as an NBA powerhouse throughout the 1980s. The franchise won five championships in a nine-year span, including two out of three marquee Finals matchups against the Celtics. The Lakers were defeated by their Boston archrivals in the 1984 Finals, but triumphed over them in 1985 and 1987.