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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.
Crypto.com Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Downtown Los Angeles. Adjacent to the L.A. Live development, it is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex along Figueroa Street. The arena opened on October 17, 1999.
Jaime Jarrín is an Ecuadorian-born American sportscaster known as the Spanish-language voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He began broadcasting for the Dodgers in 1959 and was the 1998 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame. One of the most recognizable voices in Hispanic broadcasting, Jarrín, "the Spanish Voice of the Dodgers" is also heard on Spectrum SportsNet LA's SAP channel.
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 June 12 and was broadcast on NBC — the last NBA games broadcast on the network to date.
Figueroa Street is a major north-south street in Los Angeles County, California, spanning from the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington north to Eagle Rock. A short, unconnected continuation of Figueroa Street runs just south of Marengo Drive in Glendale to Chevy Chase Drive in La Cañada Flintridge.
Paul Benedict Sunderland is an American professional sportscaster who resides in Los Angeles, California. He worked as the indoor volleyball play-by-play announcer for NBC Olympics’ coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics, and has worked for the NBC Sports Group's Summer Olympics coverage starting at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics. He is a former collegiate basketball and volleyball player and played on the US National Men's Volleyball Team. He was a member of the US Men's volleyball team that won the Gold Medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics.
Bill Macdonald is an American professional sportscaster who is currently the TV play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) on Spectrum SportsNet alongside color commentator Stu Lantz.
The 2007–08 Los Angeles Lakers season was the 60th season of the franchise, 59th in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and 48th in Los Angeles. During the offseason, the Lakers re-signed point guard Derek Fisher. The Lakers celebrated their 60th anniversary, thus the Laker jerseys wore the 60th anniversary patches on the leftmost part. They finished the regular season with 57 wins, finishing with the most wins in the tightest conference race in NBA history. The Lakers clinched the top seed in the playoffs for the 29th time in franchise history. This 15-game turnaround from the prior season has been attributed to the progress of the team's bench players and the mid-season trade for Pau Gasol. The Lakers sold out all 41 home games for the season. After 12 seasons in the NBA, Kobe Bryant was named the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player for the first and only time in his career. The Lakers had the third best team offensive rating and the fifth best team defensive rating in the NBA.
The 2001–02 NBA season was the Lakers' 54th season in the National Basketball Association, and 42nd in the city of Los Angeles. The Lakers entered the season as the two-time defending NBA champions, having defeated the Philadelphia 76ers in five games in the 2001 NBA Finals, winning their thirteenth NBA championship. During the off-season, the Lakers signed free agent All-Star guard Mitch Richmond, and Samaki Walker while acquiring Lindsey Hunter from the Milwaukee Bucks. The team got off to a fast start winning their first seven games, leading to a successful 16–1 start after a nine-game winning streak between November and December. The Lakers finished second in the Pacific Division with a 58–24 record. Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal were both selected for the 2002 NBA All-Star Game, in which Bryant won MVP honors despite being booed by the hometown crowd in Philadelphia, but O'Neal did not participate in the All-Star game due to an injury for the second year in a row.
The 2008–09 Los Angeles Lakers season was the franchise's 61st season, 60th in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and 49th in Los Angeles. The Lakers won their division for the 31st time and appeared in the Western Conference Finals for the 39th time. With 65 wins, tied for they recorded the third most wins in franchise history shared with 1986–87 team, the most since 1999–2000, and improved on their 2007–08 record by eight wins. The Lakers sold out all 41 home games for the season, led the NBA in money earned from overall ticket sales, and had the 5th highest increase in gate receipts from the previous season. The Lakers had the third best team offensive rating in the NBA.
The 2010 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2009–10 season and conclusion of the season's playoffs. In this best-of-seven playoff series, the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics, 4–3, winning their second consecutive NBA championship. The Lakers were favored to repeat as champions over the Celtics. They defeated the Celtics, four games to three, to win the franchise's 16th NBA championship. The 64th edition of the championship series was played between June 3 and June 17, was broadcast on ABC, and was watched by an average of 18.1 million people.
The 2009–10 Los Angeles Lakers season was the 62nd season of the franchise, 61st in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and 50th in Los Angeles. During the offseason, the Lakers signed free agent and former defensive player of the year forward Ron Artest. Coming off from winning their fifteenth championship in the NBA Finals defeating the Orlando Magic in five games, the Lakers successfully defended their title. They spent the most money of any team on player salaries that season, totaling $112.7 million. The Lakers once again sold out all 41 home games for the season at Staples Center.
The 2010–11 Los Angeles Lakers season was the 63rd season of the franchise, 62nd in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and 51st in Los Angeles. As both the three-time defending Western Conference Champions and the two-time defending NBA Champions, the Lakers attempted their third "three-peat" in franchise history (1952–54) and (2000–02), but were swept by the eventual champion Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Semi-finals. The Lakers marked the end of an era for head coach Phil Jackson, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in March 2011. He proceeded to announce his retirement as head coach after the playoffs. The Lakers once again sold out all 41 home games for the season at Staples Center.
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 2002–03 NBA season was the Lakers' 55th season in the National Basketball Association, and 43rd in the city of Los Angeles. The Lakers entered the season as the three-time defending champions, having defeated the New Jersey Nets in four straight games in the 2002 NBA Finals, winning their fourteenth NBA championship. With All-Star center Shaquille O'Neal sidelined after an off-season foot-surgery, the Lakers started 3–9. After he returned, the team only improved slowly, having an 11–19 record thirty games into the season, their worst start in ten years. However, the Lakers won 11 of their final 13 games ending the season with a 50–32 record, finishing fifth in the Western Conference.
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. Among those who died were retired professional basketball player Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife Keri and daughter Alyssa. As well as, Payton Chester and her mother Sara and the girls' basketball coach Christina Mauser were also killed in the crash.
Dieter Ruehle is an American musician who is the stadium organist for Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers and National Hockey League's Los Angeles Kings. As of October 2020, Ruehle has played for three championship teams in three different sports: Dodgers in 2020; Lakers in 2002, 2009 and 2010; and Kings in 2012 and 2014.
Michael Eaves is an American sportscaster. He serves as an anchor for ESPN's SportsCenter on the west coast edition and as a co-host of NBA Countdown for shows preceding NBA Wednesday. He began working at ESPN in 2015.
Vanessa Marie Bryant is an American philanthropist, business executive, and former model. She became a public figure after her marriage to basketball player Kobe Bryant. They founded the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Foundation in 2007 to provide scholarships to minority college students worldwide. Bryant leads the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation to support child athletes who are in need. She is the president and chief executive officer of Granity Studios.
References
- 1 2 3 4 "Lakers Broadcast Information". NBA.com. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
- ↑ "We Asked 18 Journalists for Their Favorite Kobe Bryant Stories" . Retrieved 2022-02-20.
- ↑ "Los Lakers know their Hispanic fan base". 2016-11-21. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
- ↑ "Stu Lantz Among Lakers Broadcasters Recognized At Southern California Sports Broadcasters Awards". 2018-01-25. Retrieved 2022-02-20.