Over a span of several decades, the Los Angeles Lakers became the gold standard of basketball by winning championship after championship. They did so with a formula that consisted of transcendent leaders, star players, selfless supporting contributors and a healthy team concept.
The Lakers are one of very few teams in sports that have had multiple dynasties. They had one in their embryonic years in Minneapolis, one during the Showtime era of the 1980s and yet another one in the first decade of the 21st century. As such, not every one of their championship teams can be put on a top 10 list.
We continue our ranking of the 10 greatest Lakers teams to win it all with a look at the one that was the first to win it all following the franchise’s move to Los Angeles.
A Bridesmaid Reputation
The Lakers were the NBA original dynasty team right after the league was founded in 1946. They won the championship of the National Basketball League, a rival of the NBA, in 1947, and they then joined the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which was the NBA’s predecessor.
Right away, they won five of the next six titles behind Hall of Fame center George Mikan, who has long been considered basketball’s equivalent of Babe Ruth.
After some dark years following Mikan’s retirement, the Lakers drafted Elgin Baylor in 1958 and Jerry West in 1960, then moved from Minneapolis to the Southland in advance of the 1960-61 season.
Starting in the 1961-62 campaign, they would reach the NBA Finals seven times in nine seasons, only to lose on each occasion, usually to Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics. On four of those occasions, they lost in Game 7, making their failures that much more painful.
Heading into the 1971-72 season, it looked like L.A.’s window was just about shut. Baylor and West were aging and brittle, while legendary center Wilt Chamberlain wasn’t the scoring machine he had once been.
It hired new head coach Bill Sharman, a former Hall of Fame Celtics player, and while it started 6-3, Sharman wanted more speed, so he asked Baylor to come off the bench in favor of young Jim McMillian.
Baylor instead decided to retire right away, and the Lakers went on a historic run right away.
Starting with their very next contest, they won 33 games in a row, which still stands as an American pro sports record. They ended up with a 69-13 record, which was another NBA record that would stand for nearly a quarter of a century.
Sharman remade the aging Lakers into a running team that ignited their fast break off of their defense. Chamberlain, who had always put offense first, remade himself into a shot-blocking monster. West and fellow starting guard Gail Goodrich averaged 25.8 and 25.9 points a game, respectively, while McMillian put up 18.8 points per contest.
As great as that was, the real test was ahead.
From Bridesmaids to Simply The Best
After sweeping the undermanned Chicago Bulls, the Lakers advanced to the Western Conference Finals to face Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the defending NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks. Abdul-Jabbar had just won his second MVP award in just three seasons, and he had emerged as the heir apparent to the 35-year-old Chamberlain.
Yet although Abdul-Jabbar put up monster numbers, the Lakers were able to get past Milwaukee in six games to reach the NBA Finals yet again.
There, they faced the New York Knicks, the team that had beaten them there in 1970. After New York took Game 1 114-92, it looked like the Lakers were going to fall yet again on the game’s biggest stage.
But they took Game 2, then claimed the next two contests at Madison Square Garden to take a 3-1 series lead.
Going into Game 5 at The Forum, it was uncertain if Chamberlain would play after falling on and breaking his right hand in Game 4. But he played with his hand protected by a thick pad, and he posted 24 points, 29 rebounds, eight assists and an unofficial eight blocked shots (blocks weren’t officially kept as a statistic until two seasons later).
With the Big Dipper playing inspired ball, especially defensively and on the boards, the Knicks ran out of fight. They fell, 114-100, and for the first time since moving to L.A., the Lakers were world champions.
Those Lakers of Chamberlain and West wouldn’t win another ring, and both legends would retire soon after winning it all in 1972. But what they did that year set the foundation for what the franchise would do in the 1980s when it won five NBA titles and made itself into the gold standard of basketball.