History of The Los Angeles Lakers - 1979-91: "Showtime"

1979-91: "Showtime"

Further information: Showtime (basketball)

Before the 1979-80 season, Cooke sold the team to Dr. Jerry Buss, a Santa Monica real estate developer. That year also found the Lakers holding the top overall draft pick in the Western Conference, compensation for Goodrich's departure via free agency three years earlier to the New Orleans Jazz. At the time, the overall top pick in the draft was decided by a coin toss between the two teams with the top picks in each respective conference. The Eastern Conference team was the Chicago Bulls. The Lakers won the coin toss and selected Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who had just led Michigan State University to the NCAA championship, and was along with Indiana State University forward Larry Bird one of the top prospects in the 1979 draft.

Just 14 games into the season, the Lakers' rookie head coach, Jack McKinney suffered a serious head injury in a bicycle accident. Assistant coach Paul Westhead stepped in as the team's new head coach. Officially, Westhead began his head coaching term serving as the "interim" head coach. But the severity of McKinney's injury meant a long convalescence, and that combined with Westhead's subsequent success in the job ultimately meant that McKinney would not return to the Lakers. Westhead's promotion to the head coaching position also meant there was an assistant's post open, for which the Lakers hired then-TV commentator Pat Riley to fill in. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had a fantastic year (earning his sixth and final MVP award) as the Lakers won 60 regular season games. They beat the Suns and Supersonics in the playoffs and then defeated Julius Erving's 76ers to win the NBA championship, behind an incredible Game 6 performance by the rookie Magic Johnson, who scored 42 points, pulled 15 rebounds, and dished 7 assists, while starting at center for an injured Abdul-Jabbar. That alone won Johnson the first of his three Finals MVP awards.

The accomplishment would soon be followed by ugliness for the team, however. In a season that was marred by Johnson missing a large portion of time due to injury and a general state of unrest and dissension in the locker room, the Lakers stunningly fell in the first round of the 1981 NBA Playoffs to the Houston Rockets, who went on to the NBA Finals despite a 40-42 regular season record. The next season also began in rocky fashion, as Coach Westhead attempted to restructure the offense in a way that Magic Johnson opposed. Johnson was so upset that he demanded to be traded. Buss, however, sided with star player over head coach, and he fired Westhead just 11 games into the season. The fan reaction to Johnson for having triggered his head coach's firing was immediate and Johnson found himself roundly booed, even by the Lakers' home crowd in Los Angeles.

Nonetheless, under the tutelage of new head coach Pat Riley, the Lakers returned to the finals that year by beating Phoenix and Houston in the playoffs. Furthermore, they found themselves again with the top overall draft pick, thanks to a trade two years earlier with the last-place Cleveland Cavaliers. This marked the first time that a reigning NBA champion also had the first pick in the draft. The Lakers used that pick to select James Worthy. Worthy had a strong rookie campaign, but he broke his leg at the end of the season and could only watch helplessly as the Lakers, also hobbled by injuires in the post-season to Bob McAdoo and Norm Nixon, were swept by the powerful 76ers, led by regular season and Finals MVP Moses Malone, in the 1983 NBA Finals.

Byron Scott joined the team the next year, in a trade for the popular Norm Nixon, and the Lakers got off to a roaring start. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar set the NBA all-time scoring record against Utah on April 5, 1984, topping Wilt Chamberlain's 31,419. The Lakers returned to the finals to face Larry Bird's Boston Celtics. The 1984 Finals were a brutal slugfest with games 1, 2, 5, and 7 played in the June heat and humidity of Boston Garden. The Celtics won the last match 111-102 to clinch the championship.

By the 1984–85 season, the Lakers' so-called "Showtime" era was in full swing. Showtime was a fast-paced style of basketball, described as a mix of "no-look passes off the fastbreak, pin-point alley-oops from halfcourt, spinning feeds and overhand bullets under the basket through triple teams." The team won the Pacific Division for the fourth straight year, this time by an NBA-record 20 games ahead of second-place Portland. They also set team records for field-goal percentage (.545) and assists (2,575). For the ninth time, they faced the Celtics in the finals. The championship series got off to a disastrous start for the Lakers, losing Game 1 of the Finals by a lopsided score of 148–114, in what is now remembered as the "Memorial Day Massacre". But the Lakers were resilient and behind 37-year old Finals MVP Abdul-Jabbar, they were finally able to topple Boston in six games. Abdul-Jabbar proceeded to dismember the Celtics with his deadly skyhook move, and Los Angeles won Game 6 111-100 in Boston Garden, one of the greatest triumphs in franchise history. The Lakers gained their first ever Finals victory over the Celtics, and they were the only visiting team to ever do this in Boston Garden.

The Lakers were expected to meet Boston in the finals again the next year, and started the 1985–86 season on a tear, going 24–3. They finished with 62 wins and topped the record they set the year before by winning their fifth-straight division title by 22 games. However, the Houston Rockets had their own plans for the playoffs. Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson overwhelmed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Rockets won the series when Sampson hit a 20-foot jumper as time expired in Game 5 at The Forum.

Concerned over Abdul-Jabbar's age (he was now 39), Pat Riley re-centered the offense around Magic Johnson. The strategy worked, and the Lakers accumulated 65 wins, the second-most in franchise history up to that point. Johnson also won his first MVP award. It should be noted that although the Showtime Lakers were famous for their scoring, they were also a great defensive team. Michael Cooper won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award in 1987. After passing the Nuggets, Warriors, and Supersonics in the playoffs, the Lakers headed to the Finals for the sixth time since 1980. Johnson then notched his last Finals MVP award as the Lakers defeated their archrival Celtics in the finals, highlighted by Johnson's running "baby hook" shot to win Game 4 at Boston Garden with two seconds remaining. This time, the decisive game was at home, giving the Los Angeles fans their first-ever chance to witness in person their team conquer the hated Celtics. The 40-year old Kareem Abdul-Jabbar still managed to deliver a punch in the Finals as he and Magic Johnson rolled over Boston. The Finals proved easier than expected because Los Angeles was well-rested after an easy trip through the playoffs while their opponent was tired and battered by injuries after a brutal seven-game ECF battle with Detroit.

At the victory celebration afterward, Riley boldly guaranteed that the Lakers would repeat as champions the next year, something no team had done since the Celtics in 1969. Abdul-Jabbar also stated that he would return for the 1987-88 season to contribute to Riley's promise of back-to-back titles. With every team in the league now gunning for them, the Lakers still found a way to win, taking their seventh consecutive Pacific Division title, and subsequently meeting Isiah Thomas and the physical Detroit Pistons in the 1988 NBA Finals, even after going the distance against the Utah Jazz and the Dallas Mavericks in the second round and Conference Finals, respectively. The series went to seven games and the Lakers squeaked out a victory because of an injury to Isiah Thomas as well as James Worthy's Game 7 triple double, which earned him a Finals MVP award and cemented his nickname of "Big Game James". By the narrowest of margins, the Lakers had delivered on Riley's guarantee. With age quickly catching up to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Johnson had to carry the offense. It worked, and as the latter said afterwards "We kept coming back. This was the hardest championship of them all."

It didn't look to be the beginning of the end, as the 1988–89 Lakers won their division yet again and Magic Johnson collected his second MVP award. The team then swept their first three playoff series (against the Trail Blazers, Supersonics and Suns respectively) to set up a rematch with the Pistons in the Finals. But the "three-peat" was not to be, as Johnson and Byron Scott were taken out of commission by injuries. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar once again had to lead the offense, but the Pistons proved more than he could handle. In Game 4, the 42-year old center made a bank shot at 1:42 seconds for the final two points of his career. As he walked off the floor for the last time, everyone in the Forum, including the Pistons bench, stood up and applauded.

The Lakers seemed to adapt well to Kareem's absence. New center Vlade Divac helped the team to a 63-win season in 1989-90 and their ninth consecutive division title, and Johnson took another MVP award. However, the Phoenix Suns had the Lakers' number that year in the second round of the NBA Playoffs, defeating the Lakers in a surprisingly easy five games. Pat Riley stepped down as coach and was replaced by Mike Dunleavy as head coach. Michael Cooper, another great from the Showtime years, also retired.

Johnson became the NBA's all-time assist leader, surpassing Oscar Robertson the next season, as Dunleavy's new philosophy incorporated a slow and deliberate style, instead of the fast breaking Showtime style of the Pat Riley era. After a slow start the Lakers finished with a 58-24 record, defeated the strong Portland Trail Blazers 4-2 for the conference championship and returned to the NBA Finals. Unfortunately for the Lakers, though, a new dynasty was just beginning elsewhere, as Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls under second-year coach Phil Jackson won the first of their six championships by ousting the Lakers in a 4-1 series.

Read more about this topic:  History Of The Los Angeles Lakers