An NBA Super Story

The Los Angeles Lakers have dominated the NBA for decades; claiming stake to some of the most renowned players in basketball history. They struck gold when they drafted NBA rookie Kobe Bryant, but only time could reveal just how much this player could possibly reshape the face of the Los Angeles Lakers as we know it.

Los Angeles Lakers vs Boston Celtics

These two professional basketball teams have been rivals for years. Their rivalry goes deeper than the usual opposing team spirit. These two teams first met in the NBA Finals in 1959 when the then Minneapolis Lakers lost every game in the tournament against the Boston Celtics.

Can Last Year's 2010 NBA Champions Take the Crown Again?

The Los Angeles Lakers were making me nervous as the 2010 NBA Regular Season came to a close. With Kobe sitting out so many games, Lakers fans across the U.S., myself included, were coming to nail-biting conclusions about if the Lakers could pull off a season like last year, and if so, how in the world would they do it?

The Los Angeles Lakers are a National Basketball Association (NBA) team based in Los Angeles, California. The Lakers play their home games at Staples Center, which they share with their fellow NBA rival, the Los Angeles Clippers, and their sister team, the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA. The Lakers are the current two-time NBA champions after defeating the Boston Celtics in the Finals four games to three. In June 2009, basketball analyst and writer John Hollinger ranked the Lakers as the greatest NBA franchise of all time.

The Lakers franchise was founded in 1946 in Detroit, Michigan before moving to Minneapolis, where the team got its official title from the state's nickname, "Land of 10,000 Lakes." The Lakers won five championships before relocating to Los Angeles in the 1960–61 season. The Lakers lost all of their eight appearances in the NBA Finals in the 1960s, despite having help from Elgin Baylor and Jerry West. In 1972, the Lakers won their sixth title, first in Los Angeles, under coach Bill Sharman. The Lakers' popularity soared in the 1980s when they won five additional championships during a nine-year span with the leadership of Hall of Famers Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy and coach Pat Riley, the franchise's all-time leader in regular season game wins and playoff games coached and wins. Two of those championships during that span were against their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics. From 2000 to 2002, the Lakers won three titles consecutively with the help of Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, and Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson. After losing both the 2004 and 2008 NBA Finals, the Lakers captured two more championships, for a total of 16, by defeating the Orlando Magic in 2009, and the Boston Celtics in 2010.

The Lakers hold records for having (into the 2009–10 season) the most wins (3,000), the highest winning percentage (61.8%), the most NBA Finals appearances (31), the second fewest non-playoff seasons with five (San Antonio Spurs have four), and the second-most NBA championships with 16, behind the Boston Celtics' 17. They also hold the record for compiling the longest win streak (33) in U.S. professional team sports (also an NBA record) in the 1971–72 season. Fourteen Hall of Famers have played for the Lakers, while four Hall of Famers (John Kundla, Bill Sharman, Pat Riley and Phil Jackson) have coached the team. Four Lakers (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant) have won the NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for a total of 8 MVP awards.