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, and have won 17 NBA championships, tied with the Boston Celtics for the most in NBA history. More recently, the Lakers were the champions of the NBA's inaugural In-Season Tournament in 2023.
Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal, known commonly as Shaq, is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program Inside the NBA. He is a 7-foot-1-inch (2.16 m) and 325-pound (147 kg) center who played for six teams over his 19-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and is a four-time NBA champion. O'Neal is regarded as one of the greatest basketball players and centers of all time.
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 players in the history of the sport, Bryant won five NBA championships and 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. He 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.
Kevin Maurice Garnett is an American former professional basketball player who played for 21 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "Big Ticket", Garnett is considered one of the greatest power forwards of all time, being known for his intensity, defensive ability, and versatility. As of 2020, he is one of five NBA players to have won both the NBA Most Valuable Player Award and the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award.
Gary Dwayne Payton is an American former professional basketball player who was a point guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely considered one of the greatest point guards of all time, he is best known for his 13-year tenure with the Seattle SuperSonics, where he holds franchise records in assists and steals. He also played with the Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, and Miami Heat. Payton won an NBA championship with the Heat in 2006. Nicknamed "the Glove" for his defensive abilities, Payton was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. In October 2021, Payton was named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.
Jalen Anthony Rose is an American sports analyst and former professional basketball player. In college, he was a member of the University of Michigan Wolverines' "Fab Five" that reached the 1992 and 1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship games as both freshmen and sophomores.
The NBA high school draftees are players who have been drafted to the National Basketball Association (NBA) straight out of high school. The process of jumping directly from high school basketball to the professional level is also known as going prep-to-pro. Since 2006, the practice of drafting high school players has been prohibited by the new collective bargaining agreement, which requires that players who enter the draft be 19 years of age or older and at least one year removed from high school.
The 2002 NBA Finals was the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s championship series for the 2001–02 season. The best-of-seven playoff was contested between the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers, and the Eastern Conference champion New Jersey Nets. The Lakers swept the Nets, four games to none, to win the franchise's 14th NBA championship and third consecutive NBA championship. The 56th edition of the championship series was played between June 5 and 12 and was broadcast on NBC — the last NBA games broadcast on the network to date.
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.
God Shammgod, formerly known as Shammgod Wells, is an American basketball coach and former professional player. He is currently a player development coach with the Dallas Mavericks. He played in the NBA with the Washington Wizards during 1997–98 after being drafted by them in the second round of the 1997 NBA draft. He played in the Chinese Basketball Association for several teams, including the Zhejiang Cyclones and Shanxi Yujun. He also played professionally in Poland and Saudi Arabia. Despite a brief NBA career, he is well-remembered as the progenitor and namesake of a widely used crossover dribble, the "Shammgod", although the move, known in Europe as "The Whip", was already used earlier by former Yugoslavian players Dragan Kicanovic and Danko Cvjeticanin and later popularized by Dejan Bodiroga.
Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside, sometimes mislabeled as Kobe Bryant's NBA Courtside, is a basketball simulation video game developed by Left Field Productions and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 in 1998. At the time of the game's release, Kobe Bryant was in his second NBA season and at age 19, was the youngest player to have a game named for him. It was followed by a sequel, NBA Courtside 2: Featuring Kobe Bryant, released in 1999.
Robert Todd Pelinka Jr. is an American basketball executive, lawyer, sports agent, and former college basketball player from Lake Bluff, Illinois in the North Shore of the Chicago metropolitan area. Pelinka is currently the vice president of basketball operations and general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
The NBA All-Star Game Kobe Bryant Most Valuable Player (MVP) is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award given to the player(s) voted best of the annual All-Star Game. The award was established in 1953 when NBA officials decided to designate an MVP for each year's game. The league also re-honored players from the previous two All-Star Games. Ed Macauley and Paul Arizin were selected as the 1951 and 1952 MVP winners respectively. The winner is voted upon by a panel of media members, who cast their vote after the conclusion of the game. The fan voting accounts for 25% of the voting. The player(s) with the most votes or ties for the most votes wins the award. In February 2020, Commissioner Adam Silver renamed the NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player in honor of four-time winner Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash a few weeks earlier.
NBA 2K17 is a 2016 basketball simulation video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K. It is the 18th installment in the NBA 2K franchise and the successor to NBA 2K16. It was released worldwide on September 20, 2016, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Players who pre-ordered the game received it on September 16, 2016. Paul George of the Indiana Pacers is the cover athlete for the regular edition of the game, while Kobe Bryant is the cover athlete for the 'Legend Edition'. In Italy, the cover athlete is Danilo Gallinari, and in Spain, the cover athlete is Pau Gasol. A version of the game for iOS and Android was released on September 23, 2016. NBA 2K17 was succeeded by NBA 2K18.
Sabrina Elaine Ionescu is an American professional basketball player for the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She played college basketball for the Oregon Ducks. She is the NCAA all-time leader in career triple-doubles, the Pac-12 Conference all-time leader in assists, and the only NCAA Division I basketball player to record 2,000 points, 1,000 assists, and 1,000 rebounds in a career.
Anthony Edwards, nicknamed "Ant-Man" or simply “Ant,” is an American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A shooting guard, he played college basketball for the University of Georgia Bulldogs and was selected with the first overall pick by the Timberwolves in the 2020 NBA draft.
On January 26, 2020, a Sikorsky S-76B helicopter crashed in the city of Calabasas, California, around 30 mi (48 km) northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, while en route from John Wayne Airport to Camarillo Airport. All nine people on board were killed: retired professional basketball player Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife Keri, his daughter Alyssa, Payton Chester, her mother Sarah, basketball coach Christina Mauser, and the pilot, Ara Zobayan.
