Los Angeles Lakers franchise is a basket ball team which was founded in 1946 after the purchase of a weakening Detroit. The team home ground is based in Los Angeles California staples. The famous basket ball participate in the pacific division of the of the NBA league.
The team is famous for its code of colours which consist of the white, gold and purple colours, when playing in their home ground they prefer playing in their golden coloured uniform and when playing away it prefers playing in their purple coloured uniform. The franchise uniform has its name written on purple colour. The white jerseys are won when playing at home on a Sunday or during a holiday
the white jerseys are won when playing at staples either on a Sunday or when there is a holiday.
the purple jerseys are won by the club when participating in away matches.
The golden jerseys are won when the club is playing in home ground in any other day which is not a Sunday or a holiday.
*The above images have been adopted from the lakers website
Their initial plays were centrally in Minneapolis, Minnesota, this during the years that followed its establishment by then it referred to as the Lakers, they adopted the name from the states name which was land of 10,000 lakes. The club won a total of five championships in Minneapolis.
According to the 2012 audit reports from NBA Los Angeles Lakers franchise is one of the richest with a value of $900 million.
The franchise is owned by jerry buss while its manager is Mitch Kupchak, while the head coach is currently mike Antoni who is a former American professional basket ball player.
The trail of good performance stated in 1949 when it won their first NBA finals. The club has won a total of 16 championships with the recent being that of 2012.
In the NBA seasons of 1960s the club managed to finish top six in the finals but it consistently lost to the Boston Celtics, in fact this was the base for the rivalry between the clubs. The lakers franchise won their six title in the 1972 seasons and which was their first after they had relocated to los Angeles.
On july 9th 1968 the los Angeles lakers contracted wilt chamberlain a known prominent basketball player from Philadelphia who played for the main team for five seasons. He became very instrumental to the team that played between 1971 and 1972 which has remained the best team of lakers in the history of NBA.
During the season of 1971 to 1972 the club made several progressive changes which saw the team scale higher heights in terms of good performance, the then owner of the club Jack kent cooke hired a new coach BILL Sharman replacing Joe Mullaney. It’s at the tenure of coach Sharman the clubs discipline improved tremendously .the coach is also celebrated for bringing the concept of shoot around in which the team would arrive quite early at the venue of the faceoff not to familiarise with the surroundings but to practice shots. It’s out of this dedication that the team managed to bag a total of 16 wins in November and December respectively.
In the season ending 1972 the Los Angeles lakers franchise won a total of 69 games which remained the unbeatable record for twenty four years until 1995 -1996 season when the Chicago bulls broke the record and placed a new one of 72 games. At the end of the 1972 season coach bill Sharman was recognized as the as the best basket ball coach of the year.
In the NBA season of 1972-1973 the Los Angeles lakers franchise won a total of 60 days and managed to lift the pacific division title. This was also the final season of the instrumental player wilt chamberlain in which he also set the unbroken field score percentage of 72.7%.
It’s due to this outstanding performance in the early seventies that earned the los-Angeles team the good reputation.
In the span running between 1974 to 1979 the Los Angeles lakers franchise contracted Abdul Kareem Jabbar which saw the team strength both in performance and in composition and this moved the team to a new level of capturing more titles. Jabbar was contracted from Milwaukee. Jabbar became very instrumental to the team and headed a lot of wins by the team.
a portrait of instrumental Jabbar in action
During the offseason span Bill Sharman was replaced by a new coach jerry west and Jabbar led the team to lift their stronghold pacific division title. The most unfortunate event happened to the team during their 1977 – 1978 season when the instrumental Abdul Kareem Jabbar broke his hand after punching an opponent player after an aggressive tackle, The remained off pitch for two months which weakened the team significantly.
In the transition of the off season of 1979 the most historic events of the franchise happened and the then owner Jack Kent Cooke sold this famous basketball franchise to a real estate developer Jerry Buss at a price of $67.5 billion. Immediately the new owner replaced the existing coach with Jack McKinney.
Jerry buss current owner of Los Angeles
The 1980 -1981 NBA season was a cause of disappointment to the team as they lost Johnson to a knee injury as well as Abdul Kareem Jabbar, the team never managed to clinch their stronghold ,the pacific division title which they had always managed to take with ease, the title was lifted by their arch rivals the phoenix suns. The Los Angeles lakers franchise was also beaten by rockets twice in their own territory it was a quite bad season for the club.
After this poor performance, Jerry buss who was the coach was replaced by Paul westhead as the new coach.
In 1981 – 1982 season Los Angeles clinched their strong hold title, the pacific division title, and made an admirable defeat against the phoenix and San Antonio spurs.
In the 1983 – 1984 season Abdul Kareem Jabbar became the NBA’s all time heading scorer when he scored a total of 31,420 point exceeding that of his previous predecessor wilt chamberlain.
Wilt chamberlain in action
The most historic event of the team is when they finally made it to the finals after beating other rivals such as phoenix, Portland and Denver nuggets meeting their greatest rival the Boston Celtics where they managed to beat them and lift the NBA title, it was the happiest moment for the team.
Another flow of good performance is that of 1987 to 1988 when the then coach pat Riley’s led the team to victory after beating the Detroit pistons in the NBA’s finals and becoming the second team after Boston Celtics to retain the NBA’s title in a consecutive seasons after Boston had done it in 1967 -68 and 1968 -69 seasons.
Abdul Kareem played his final match at an age of 41 years and led the team in lifting their pacific division title which was their all time stronghold title. Regardless of this being his last match he never managed to lead his team players in winning the NBA championship title and they were defeated by Detroit pistons.
Between 1993 and 1998 the performance of the lakers was dismal and the team was seen to be headed in a downturn with occasional replacement of coaches to try and revive the club. But all was not gone the club hired a new coach in the season running between 1999 -2000, Phil Jackson was the new coach, a former head coach of the famous Chicago bulls. During this forum the club moved from their 31 years home ground to the new staples in Los Angeles with a sitting capacity of 18,997 persons. This was necessitated by the ever increasing fans of the lakers and basketball sport.
In his entry to the team Phil Jackson brought with him other new three assistants to enable him rejuvenate the lost glory of the Los Angeles lakers franchise.
The famous head coach of los Angeles lakers franchise
The plan of hiring an experienced coach who came along with other new assistants was greatly significant to the improvement of the team, this is because the team managed to clinch the NBA’s championships titles since 1988.the team a also managed to win the same title in the following season by beating Philadelphia in the finals. The team went further to clinch the title on a third consecutive time by beating New Jersey in the finals and this became the first time for the club to win three times in a row the coveted NBA championship title, this also market the sixteenth NBA title of the club since the establishment of the title in 1951.
Ina nut shell it can be summarised that the club performance over the years has been admirable being the team regarded as a having a stronghold on the pacific division title and winning the NBA championship title sixteen times verifies beyond any reasonable doubts that the club is a good performer.
The good performance can be linked to good management, informed selection and hiring of players as well as contracting experienced coaches both a the pitch and at the technical areas.
The team has remained as one the leading clubs in arena of basket ball and the future of the club is great.
The franchise has also grown in terms of monetary value to attain a valuation of $900 billion in less than thirty years when it was purchased at value of $67.5 billion.
REFERENCES.
accesses on 17th Dec 2012
Wilkes, Glenn. Basket Ball. London: McGraw hill.1997.print.
Ray, Clellon. Basket ball. California: Bellwether media Inc.2009.print
accessed on 17th Dec 2012.
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Jack, Clary. Basket ball’s great dynasties: The Lakers. California: smithmark publishers..1992.print.
Nicholas, John.2001.Los Angeles Lakers. Mankato: Creative education.2001.print
