Next up on the Getting Dynastic series is the Showtime Lakers.
Categories
Rings
The Lakers won the NBA Championship in 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, and 1988, which makes for five championships in 9 years. Not too shabby. (18/20)
Non-Championship Years
The Lakers lost in the finals in 1983, 1984, 1989, and 1991.
Before they started winning championships, they were in general a contender, and remained so after this run. (9/10)
Peak Performance
The Lakers’ best record during this period was 1986-7, when they finished 65-17. This is behind other records during the decade, and about 20th overall. It is possible the Lakers never had a true outlier of a season because they weren’t pushed in their conference.
Winning consecutive championships in 1987 and 1988 is a feat that had not been accomplished since the Celtics dynasty. (7/10)
Star Power
When this period began, the Lakers had the best player in the NBA, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who won the MBP that year, and went on to set the NBA scoring record.
They also had a rookie, Magic Johnson, who would go on to win 3 NBA Championships.
In the decade, the Lakers would employ Jamaal Wilkes, Norm Nixon, Michael Cooper, James Worthy, Byron Scott, and Mychal Thompson (10/10)
Coaching / Innovation
The Lakers began the decade under Paul Westhead, who was the interim coach for Jack MicKinney. He was ultimately replaced by Pat Riley, who is considered among the best ever, and is president of the Miami Heat to this day.
The team ushered in Showtime, a fast-break based offense built around Magic Johnson. (5/5)
Legacy
This run of success cemented the Lakers as the leading franchise in the league. Before this, they were a good team that could never beat the Celtics. After this run, they were the flagship franchise of the league by a good margin. The was an HBO Series made about the beginning of this dynasty.
In terms of the starts, the run ended when Magic Johnson received his HIV diagnosis. Riley went on the the Knicks, and then to coach the Heat to a championship. (5/5)
The Competition
The Lakers won their first two championships against the 76ers, who were a good team that would win a championship, their next two against the Celtics, who will appear in this series, and the last against the Pistons, who will also appear here.
But they did not encounter much resistance in their own conference. Their run of Western Conference championships was only interrupted by the 1981 and 1986 Rockets, who were very different teams.
Also, that they had the #1 pick in 1979 (for Johnson) and 1982 (for Worthy) and were also able to add on Thompson indicates that not every team in the leagues was on top of its game. (3/5)
Achilles Heel
They weren’t considered a great defensive team, but that may have been more of a regional perception than reality, as Riley would coach great defenses in New York and Miami. But Magic was vulnerable to quick point guards, and as Kareem got older, he couldn’t handle tough centers like Moses Malone. (4/5)
Bias Check
The Lakers first two championships were against the 76ers who I rooted for, but it didn’t break my heart.
They were a West Coast team when I was kid on the East Coast, so I didn’t watch them much in the regular season, which may have also worked to enhance their legend in my mind. Let’s call it even (0)
Summary
61 points, higher than the Islanders. Which makes sense to me, as they strike me as a much more iconic team with two of the ten best players of all time, and one of the five best coaches.
As these shake out, it will be interesting to see if they are helped or hurt by the presence of another dynastic team that is almost exactly contemporaneous.
I again used Gemeni to assist with the research, which in its current state still produces a number of factual errors.