Los Angeles Lakers
Seventeen titles, two cities, endless stars. The Lakers won five titles in Minneapolis and 12 in Los Angeles, with stars from George Mikan and Jerry West to Magic, Kobe, Shaq and LeBron.
A Lakers home game: malingering, CC BY 2.0
Lakes before palm trees
The Lakers began in Minneapolis, which explains the name: Minnesota calls itself the land of 10,000 lakes. Led by George Mikan, the first great big man, the Minneapolis Lakers won five championships between 1949 and 1954.
The team moved to Los Angeles in 1960, kept the name and built a new identity around Elgin Baylor and Jerry West, whose silhouette is widely believed to be the model for the league's logo.
Mikan was so dominant near the basket that the league widened the lane to slow him down, a change often called the Mikan rule.
From the streak to Showtime
After years of Finals losses to Boston, the Lakers broke through in 1972 with Wilt Chamberlain and West. That team won 33 straight games, still the longest winning streak in NBA history.
In 1979 Jerry Buss bought the team and drafted Magic Johnson. With Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy and coach Pat Riley, the Showtime Lakers ran fast breaks in front of celebrities courtside and won five titles in the 1980s.
Magic won Finals MVP as a rookie in 1980, starting at center in the clinching Game 6 in place of the injured Kareem and scoring 42 points.
Shaq, Kobe and LeBron
Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant won three straight titles from 2000 to 2002. Kobe and Pau Gasol added two more in 2009 and 2010. In 2020 LeBron James and Anthony Davis won title number 17 inside the league's bubble in Florida, tying Boston at the time.
In 2025 the Buss family agreed to sell majority control of the franchise to Mark Walter, ending more than four decades of Buss family control.
Along the way the Lakers also lost more Finals than any other franchise, a sign of how often they got there.
Hollywood's team
The Lakers have always been about stars and style: courtside celebrities, purple and gold, and a home in the entertainment capital of the world. They have played in Crypto.com Arena, originally named Staples Center, since 1999.
For Fly Baller, the Lakers stand for the fly life at its most glamorous, but also for something less flashy: they keep winning because they keep attracting the very best.
Retired numbers fill the rafters, including Kareem's 33, Magic's 32, James Worthy's 42, Shaq's 34 and Kobe's 8 and 24, and statues of Lakers legends stand outside the arena on Star Plaza.
Text written by Fly Baller.
