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 league's Western Conference Pacific Division. 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, and have won 17 NBA championships, tied with the Boston Celtics for the most in NBA history.
Kobe Bean Bryant was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Bryant won five NBA championships, was an 18-time All-Star, a 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, a 12-time member of the All-Defensive Team, the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), and a two-time NBA Finals MVP. Bryant also led the NBA in scoring twice, and ranks fourth in league all-time regular season and postseason scoring. He was posthumously voted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020 and named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021.
Dwight David Howard II is an American professional basketball player for the Taoyuan Leopards of the T1 League. He began his career in the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he was an NBA champion, eight-time All-Star, eight-time All-NBA Team honoree, five-time All-Defensive Team member, and three-time Defensive Player of the Year.
Gerald Hatten "Jerry" Buss was an American businessman, investor, chemist, and philanthropist. He was the majority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), winning 10 league championships that were highlighted by the team's Showtime era during the 1980s. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor. Buss owned other professional sports franchises in Southern California.
Mitchell Kupchak is an American professional basketball executive and retired player. He is the current president of basketball operations and general manager of the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). As a college player, Kupchak was an All-American at the University of North Carolina and a member of the gold medal-winning 1976 United States Olympic team. As a professional player, he won three NBA titles – one as a member of the Washington Bullets and two with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Los Angeles Lakers franchise has a long and storied history, predating the formation of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Stuart Burrell Lantz is an American former professional basketball player who is a television commentator for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) on Spectrum SportsNet. He played college basketball at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
The Shaq–Kobe feud was the conflict between National Basketball Association (NBA) players Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, who played together for the Los Angeles Lakers from 1996–2004.
Andrew D. Bernstein is an American sports photographer.
The Lakers–Spurs rivalry is a National Basketball Association (NBA) rivalry between the Los Angeles Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs. The rivalry started in the late 1970s and peaked from the late 1990s into the late 2000s. Since 1999, the teams have met in the NBA playoffs 7 times, with the clubs combining to appear in seven straight NBA Finals from 1999–2005. Additionally, the teams won each NBA Title from 1999–2003. From 1999–2004, the rivalry was considered as the NBA's best, as each time the clubs faced each other in the playoffs, the winner advanced to the NBA Finals. The rivalry fell off from 2005–07, with the Lakers missing the playoffs in 2005 and losing in the first round to the Phoenix Suns in 2006 and 2007, but intensified again in 2008 when they met in the Western Conference Finals, and later on, again in the first round of the 2013 Western Conference playoffs. Both teams cemented their status as the NBA dynasties of the 2000s.
The 2005–06 Los Angeles Lakers season was the 58th of the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the 60th overall. The Lakers finished in third place of the Pacific Division and as the seventh seed of the Western Conference. The season ended with the team being eliminated in seven games against the Phoenix Suns in the First Round of the playoffs after holding a 3–1 series lead. After a year absence, the Lakers rehired Phil Jackson as their head coach. It was the final season that Kobe Bryant wore jersey number 8 before changing it to 24 the following season. Also memorable from this season was during a January 22, 2006 game vs. the Toronto Raptors where Bryant dropped a record 81 points, only the 2nd highest total in NBA history behind Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game in 1962.
The 2011–12 NBA season was the 66th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA), which began with the signing of a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the owners of the 30 NBA teams and the NBA's players. The previous CBA, which was ratified in 2005, expired at 12:01 AM EDT on July 1, 2011, resulting in a lockout. With the new deal in place, the regular season was shortened from the normal 82 games per team to 66, because of nearly two months of inactivity. This was the league's first season since 1991–92 without Shaquille O'Neal, who announced his retirement on June 1, 2011 via social media. A 4-time champion, O'Neal played 19 years for the Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Boston Celtics. The season began on Christmas Day 2011, and ended on April 26, 2012. The playoffs started on April 28 and ended on June 21 when the Miami Heat defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5 of their series, 121–106, winning the Finals, 4–1 and to capture the franchise's second NBA title. LeBron James was named both the season MVP and the NBA Finals MVP. The NBA regular season would not begin again in December until the 2020–21 NBA season.
Spectrum SportsNet, formerly Time Warner Cable SportsNet, is an American regional sports cable and satellite television network owned by Charter Communications through its acquisition of Time Warner Cable in May 2016, with the Los Angeles Lakers maintaining editorial control over the content, including team-assigned reporters and anchors, as well as team-related programming. The network is based near the Lakers' team headquarters in the Los Angeles suburb of El Segundo, California.
The 2012–13 NBA season was the 67th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The regular season began on October 30, 2012, when the 2011–12 NBA champions Miami Heat started the season by hosting the Boston Celtics. The 2013 NBA All-Star Game was played on February 17, 2013, at Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The regular season ended on April 17, 2013, and the playoffs began on April 20, 2013 and ended on June 20, 2013, with the Miami Heat defeating the San Antonio Spurs in seven games to win the 2013 NBA Finals.
The 2012–13 Los Angeles Lakers season was the 65th season of the franchise, its 64th season in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and its 53rd season in Los Angeles. The Lakers acquired All-Stars Steve Nash and Dwight Howard, giving them a starting lineup of five All-Stars consisting of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Metta World Peace, Nash, and Howard, who were expected to contend for the franchise's 17th NBA championship. Instead, the Lakers struggled to qualify for the playoffs after changing head coaches and implementing multiple offenses. However, a weak defense and multiple injuries were the team's biggest problems. They exited the playoffs in the first round for the first time since 2007. Additionally, this was the first season since 2006-07 without longtime point guard Derek Fisher, who had helped the team win its last five championships. Widely regarded as a failed superteam mainly due to injuries, the Lakers started out the season as a top 2 favorite to win the championship and the Lakers were projected to win 58 games. The Lakers were also the top favorite to win the Western Conference.
Jeanie Marie Buss is an American sports executive who is the controlling owner and president of the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and co-owner and promoter of the U.S. women's professional wrestling promotion Women of Wrestling.
Spectrum SportsNet LA and Spectrum Deportes LA is an American regional sports network jointly owned by the Los Angeles Dodgers Major League Baseball team and Charter Communications through its acquisition of Time Warner Cable in May 2016. The channel's programming is devoted completely to the Dodgers, and includes coverage of all Dodgers games not being exclusively televised by MLB's national television partners, along with news, interview, and documentary programming focusing on the team.
James Hatten Buss is a part-owner and former executive vice president of basketball operations of the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is the son of former Lakers owner Jerry Buss. Buss was president of the Los Angeles Lazers professional indoor soccer team from 1985–1989. He later trained thoroughbred race horses for nine years before joining the Lakers in 1998 as an assistant general manager. He was promoted to vice president of basketball operations in 2005. After his father Jerry died in 2013, his controlling ownership of the Lakers passed to his children via a family trust, with each child receiving an equal interest.
The 2013–14 Los Angeles Lakers season was the 66th season of the franchise, its 65th season in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and its 54th season in Los Angeles. With Dwight Howard's departure to Houston during the offseason, Kobe Bryant playing only six games, and numerous injuries to many of the players, they finished 27–55, the sixth-worst record in the league; it was the most losses in the franchise's history which would change in the 2014–15 season and later the 2015–16 season. The Lakers missed the playoffs for the first time since 2004–05.
