While they are not playing in the NBA Finals, the Lakers nonetheless made seismic news with the announcement that Dodgers owner Mark Walter has entered into an agreement to purchase majority ownership of the Lakers, who have been owned and operated by the Buss family since 1979, for an estimated $10 billion.
Assuming the purchase goes through, it will end one of the most successful ownership runs in professional sports history. Since the late Dr. Jerry Buss (his daughter, Jeanie Buss, currently runs the team) purchased the franchise 46 years ago, the Lakers have won 11 NBA titles and have made 17 appearances in the NBA Finals.
Over that span, the Lakers have featured a slew of star players and coaches, including Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, LeBron James, coaches Pat Riley and Phil Jackson and former Hall of Fame player and executive Jerry West.
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The Lakers also enjoyed two legendary dynasties during the Buss family's ownership. The "Showtime" Lakers of the 1980s won five NBA titles and appeared in the Finals eight times. The early 2000s Lakers won three straight titles, the last team to do so in America's four major sports.
Here's a rundown of the Lakers' 10 most memorable moments during the Buss family's ownership.
10. Bubble championship
LeBron James led the Lakers to their most recent title in 2020.Imagn Images
The Lakers' most recent title is one of the most unique championships ever captured. Along with outlasting the competition, the Lakers also had to endure the rigors of spending over 100 days inside a bubble at Walt Disney World as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Simply put, the Lakers were dominant in the bubble. They went 16-5 during the playoffs that included a six-game series win over the Miami Heat in the Finals. The Lakers' run was spearheaded by LeBron James and Anthony Davis. James won Finals MVP after averaging 29.8 points, 11.8 rebounds and 8.5 assists for the series. Davis too was excellent as he put up 25 points, 10.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game.
9. Shaq comes to Hollywood
It's hard to explain the magnitude of this acquisition now, nearly 30 years later. At the time, the Lakers signing O'Neal was a jaw-dropping move that immediately made them a title contender again after several down years. The acquisition of O'Neal was largely due to the tireless work of West, who later said he spent several days in the hospital (due to exhaustion) once the deal was finally done.
The Lakers lured O'Neal from Orlando to Los Angeles by signing him to a seven-year, $121 million deal. At the time of the signing, West informed O'Neal that he was teaming him up with a young star in the making, Kobe Bryant, who was acquired after West worked out a trade with the Hornets during that year's draft.
8. Westhead out, Riley in
The Lakers had won the title in 1980 after Paul Westhead replaced Jack McKinney (who suffered a serious accident while riding his bike) after 14 games. But after a disappointing 1981 season and a 7-4 start the following season, Buss relieved Westhead of his duties and replaced him with Riley, his trusted assistant who had previously been a player and broadcaster for the Lakers.
The move was strongly influenced by Johnson, whose actions led to intense media criticism. Johnson, Riley and the Lakers ultimately proved Buss' decision to be the right one after Los Angeles defeated the 76ers in the NBA Finals. In fact, it was Riley's 1-3-1 half-court trap defense during the Finals that helped set the tone for the Lakers' second title of the decade.
7. Kobe's iconic moments
Kobe Bryant had everyone on their feet during his final game as a Laker.Getty Images
While other Lakers players had great individual performances, no player during the Buss family's ownership had more of them than Bryant, who played his entire 20-year career for the purple and gold. Two of Bryant's top moments include his 81-point outburst in 2006 and his 60-point performance in the final game of his brilliant career.
Another iconic Kobe moment occurred in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals. While his shooting was woefully off, Bryant made up for it by crashing the boards and sacrificing his body to get to the free-throw line. The result was a gritty stat line of 23 points (that included going 11 of 15 from the charity stripe) and 15 rebounds.
Equally as iconic was Bryant's celebration immediately following the Lakers' 83-79 triumph, a win that gave Bryant his much-needed NBA Finals win over Los Angeles' biggest rival -- the Celtics. Mimicking Michael Jordan's actions from 13 years earlier, Bryant jumped on the scorers table while flashing the number five, indicating the number of titles he had won as a member of the Lakers.
6. Kobe, Lakers back on top
After several lean years, the Lakers got mountaintop at the end of the 2000s, winning the 2009 title and successfully defending their crown in 2010.
The catalyst behind the Lakers' revival was the midseason trade acquisition of Pau Gasol in 2008. With Gasol, the Lakers finally had a capable No. 2 that could complement Bryant, who won his first and only league MVP that season. The Lakers made it back to the Finals that year, but they ran into a buzzsaw that was the Celtics' "Big Three" of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.
Los Angeles came back with a vengeance the next year, going 65-17 in the regular season and defeating the Magic in that year's Finals. The following year, with the help of veteran defender Ron Artest, the Lakers survived a grueling seven-game series with the Celtics that was capped off by Artest's clutch 3-pointer near the end of Game 7.
5. Three-peat
Kobe and Shaq were one of the most dominant duos in NBA history.Getty Images
Los Angeles didn't enjoy immediate championship success upon O'Neal's arrival. In fact, the Lakers suffered through three disappointing playoff exits before they finally broke through in 2000, Jackson's first season as head coach.
That run to the title didn't come without some playoff drama, however. In the Western Conference finals, the Lakers nearly blew a 3-1 lead to the Portland Trailblazers, who held a 15-point lead less than 15 seconds into the fourth quarter of Game 7. But with their backs against the wall, the Lakers showed their championship mettle by outscoring Portland 31-11 for the remainder of the contest. The most memorable moment during the Lakers' comeback was Bryant's lob to O'Neal that led to a thunderous dunk and an insurmountable lead.
In the Finals, the Lakers bested a veteran-laden Pacers team in six games. O'Neal was named MVP after dominating the series with an average of 38 points, 16.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. Bryant was hampered for most of the series after suffering an injury in Game 2, but he came up big in Game 4 by scoring eight points in overtime after O'Neal had fouled out.
In 2001, the Lakers dealt with inner turmoil for most of the season before they regrouped for a historic playoff run. The Lakers went 15-1 during the postseason, including sweeps of the Trailblazers, Kings and Spurs en route to their Finals showdown against Allen Iverson's 76ers. It took a 48-point outburst by Iverson in Game 1 to hand the Lakers their only loss of the postseason. The Lakers responded by winning the next four, with O'Neal again winning Finals MVP.
The Lakers won a third straight title in 2002, largely because of Robert Horry's jaw-dropping 3-point shot against the Sacramento Kings in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals. Instead of falling into a 3-1 series hole, Horry's shot tied the series and allowed the Lakers to eventually prevail in a seven-game thriller.
Los Angeles capped off its three-peat with a rather anticlimactic sweep of Jason Kidd's Nets. The Lakers' dominance of New Jersey was led by O'Neal and Bryant. While O'Neal again won Finals MVP, a strong case could have been made for Bryant winning that honor after he averaged 26.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.5 steals for the series.
4. Lakers go back-to-back
During the Lakers' parade celebration following their 1987 NBA title, Riley proclaimed that his team would win it again the following year. Riley wrote a pretty big check, but fortunately for him, his players cashed it the following year while becoming the NBA's first repeat champion in 19 years.
The Lakers' victory included a hard-fought NBA Finals series against the Detroit Pistons and Isiah Thomas, who scored a Finals record 25 points in the third quarter of Game 6 despite playing with a severe ankle injury. The Lakers pulled out a one-point win that night before squeaking out a 108-103 victory in Game 7. The difference in the game was Finals MVP James Worthy, who filled the stat sheet with 36 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists.
The series win confirmed the Lakers' status as the team of the 80s. The Lakers' five titles that decade was two more than the next closest team, the Celtics, who won three -- including one at the Lakers' expense.
3. Lakers best Celtics again
Magic Johnson was the catalyst behind arguably the Lakers' greatest team.Getty Images
Although they had already defeated Boston in the Finals two years earlier (more on that a little later), the Lakers reinforced that they were the better team after besting the Celtics again in the 1987 Finals.
The series win capped off arguably the Lakers' best season under the Buss family's ownership. The Lakers went 67-15 during the regular season behind Johnson's play. Johnson won his first league MVP after replacing the 40-year-old Abdul-Jabbar as the focal point of the Lakers' offense.
Los Angeles went 11-1 during the first three rounds of the playoffs before dismantling the seemingly overwhelmed Celtics during the first two games of the Finals. After losing Game 3, the Lakers trailed by 15 late in Game 4 before they staged an epic comeback that was capped off by Johnson's "junior, junior" skyhook with just over two seconds left. The Lakers then withstood a last-second, game-winning shot attempt by Larry Bird that clanked off the iron.
The Lakers ultimately won the series after pulling away during the second half of Game 6. A big reason for the win was Riley's decision to put nine-year veteran Mychal Thompson on Celtics Hall of Fame forward Kevin McHale at the start of the second half. With McHale neutralized, the Lakers rolled to a 106-93 win that included a 32-point night by Abdul-Jabbar.
2. Magic delivers first title of Buss ownership
The 1980 Lakers delivered the first NBA title under the ownership of Buss, who purchased the team less than a year earlier. Along with overcoming a coaching change, the 1980 Lakers also had to deal with losing their best player after Abdul-Jabbar missed Game 6 of the Finals after sustaining an injury during Game 5.
Instead of replacing Abdul-Jabbar with another center, they replaced him with, of all people, Johnson, then a 20-year-old rookie who, a year earlier, had led Michigan State to an NCAA title. Lining up pretty much everywhere on the court, Johnson submitted an iconic stat line of 42 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists and three steals while leading the Lakers to a 123-107 win. Los Angeles' series-clinching win also included a big night from Jamaal Wilkes, who scored 37 points while pulling down 10 rebounds.
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1. Lakers finally beat the Celtics in 1985
Jerry Buss, left, celebrates the Lakers' long-awaited NBA Finals triumph over the Celtics.Getty Images
Nothing may ever top the Lakers' first Finals triumph over the Celtics, which occurred one year after the Celtics defeated them in heartbreaking fashion in the 1984 Finals for Boston's eighth victory in eight NBA Finals series against the Lakers.
Making the Lakers' victory even sweeter was the fact that the series-clinching game took place in the Boston Garden, the site of the Celtics' blowout victory in Game 1 that was immediately nicknamed the "Memorial Day Massacre." The Lakers rebounded from that loss to win four of the series' next five games.
The Lakers' turnaround was spearheaded, fittingly, by Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar. After having a nightmarish series against the Celtics a year earlier, Johnson committed significantly fewer turnovers this time around while making more plays for his team. Abdul-Jabbar, called old and over the hill by many after his lackluster Game 1 performance, came back with a vengeance in Game 2, scoring 30 points and collecting 17 rebounds. The then 38-year-old won Finals MVP after scoring 29 points in the Lakers' series-clinching 111-100 victory.