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What is a fanlisting?
A fanlisting is a place for all the fans of a particular topic to come together and build the biggest listing of people all around the world who are fans of that subject. ~ TFL

Who are the Los Angeles Lakers?
The Los Angeles Lakers are a National Basketball Association (NBA) team based in Los Angeles, California. The Lakers play their home games at Staples Center, which they share with the Los Angeles Clippers, their sister team the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League, the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League and the NBA Development League's Los Angeles D-Fenders.
The Laker franchise was founded in Detroit before moving to Minneapolis, where the team got its official title from the state's nickname, and won 5 league championships within the various leagues before locating to Los Angeles. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Lakers popularity soared,which made them become one of the most successful franchises in the NBA with superstar players Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and coach Pat Riley winning five titles in the that span, with 3 championship series against their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics.
In the 2000s, the trio of coach Phil Jackson, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal brought three straight championships before falling apart then culminating in O'Neal being traded to the Miami Heat. Only Bryant, Jackson, and Derek Fisher, after brief stops with the Golden State Warriors and Utah Jazz, remain from the champion years. Most recently, the team finished 42-40 in the 2006-07 NBA season, Jackson's worst record of his coaching career.
The Lakers are notable for having (at the end of the 2005-06 season) the most wins (2,806), the highest winning percentage (61.5%), the most finals appearances (28) of any NBA franchise, and the second most championships (14, behind the Boston Celtics' 16). They are generally regarded as one of the NBA's most successful franchises. They hold the record for the longest consecutive win streak (33) in U.S. professional team sports. The franchise has only missed the NBA playoffs 5 times. According to Forbes magazine, the Lakers are the second most valuable basketball franchise in the United States, valued at approximately $568 million, surpassed only by the New York Knicks.

Team History
The Lakers began in 1944 when Ben Berger and Morris Chalfen bought the Detroit Gems of the National Basketball League for $15,000. The team was relocated to Minneapolis for the 1947 season. As the Gems had by far the worst record in the NBL, the Lakers had the first pick in the 1947 dispersal draft of players from the Professional Basketball League of America, which they used to select George Mikan, later to become arguably the greatest center of his time. With Mikan, new coach John Kundla and an infusion of former University of Minnesota players, the Lakers won the NBL championship in that 1947-48 season and joined three other NBL teams in jumping to the Basketball Association of America, where they promptly won the 1948-49 BAA championship. The NBL and BAA merged to become the NBA in 1949.

The Minneapolis Lakers were one of the dominant teams of the fledgling NBA. With Hall of Famers George Mikan, Vern Mikkelsen, Jim Pollard, Slater Martin, and Clyde Lovellette, they were the NBA's first "dynasty", winning five championships in six years (1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954).

After their move to Los Angeles in 1960, the team would go on to feature Hall of Famers Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Gail Goodrich, and Wilt Chamberlain. But despite the wealth of talent, they were repeatedly foiled by the Boston Celtics, losing the championship to them six times in eight years. It wasn't until 1972, when the Lakers strung together a record 33-game win streak under Coach of the Year Bill Sharman, that they were able to secure their first championship in Los Angeles. However, even with the addition of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the Lakers weren't able to win another championship until the arrival of Earvin "Magic" Johnson in 1979, defeating the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1980 championship series.(thanks to an MVP performance by the rookie Johnson, who, starting for the injured Abdul-Jabbar, had 42 points, 15 rebounds, and 7 assists to clinch the series). Under coach Pat Riley, a former Laker player, the Lakers then went on to dominate the 1980s, appearing in the finals eight times in the decade and being crowned champions five times, including consecutive championships in 1987 and 1988, the first team to do so since Boston in 1969.

Although they made another finals appearance in 1991, they spent most of the 1990s fielding teams that were not considered legitimate title contenders. However, during the 1996 offseason, the Lakers signed Shaquille O'Neal and acquired rookie Kobe Bryant from the Charlotte Hornets. Following the hiring of Phil Jackson as head coach in 1999, the team returned to championship form; led by O'Neal, Bryant, and a talented supporting cast, the Lakers won three consecutive NBA Finals from 2000-02.

Most recently, the Lakers endured a series of off-the-court problems, largely the result of friction among O'Neal, Bryant, and Jackson. In 2004, O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat and Jackson temporarily retired. After the Lakers struggled in 2004-05, Jackson returned for the following season, and the Bryant-led team returned to the postseason, losing to the Phoenix Suns in the first round in both the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons. Later in the offseason, rumours abounded that Kobe Bryant, the Laker's star player, requested to be traded. The Lakers did not trade Bryant. The rumours of Bryant being traded died down when the Lakers traded Maurice Evans and Brian Cook for Trevor Ariza on November 20, 2007. Another blockbuster trade came on February 1, 2008 when they sent center Kwame Brown, guard Javaris Crittenton, veteran Aaron Mckie, the draft rights to Marc Gasol, and two first round draft picks in 2008 and 2010 to the Memphis Grizzlies for Pau Gasol and a second round draft choice in 2010.

Uniform and Logo
The Lakers are notable in that they are the only team in the NBA not to wear primarily white at home. However, since the 2002-03 season the team has worn white jerseys on Sunday and holiday home games. The white jerseys were designed by Lakers owner Jerry Buss' daughter Jeannie Buss, in tribute to Chick Hearn, who was regarded as the voice of the team for forty years until his death in August 2002.

In a rather unusual move, the team wore their home gold uniforms on the road in their December 23, 2007 game against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden as opposed to their purple away uniforms, but both the Lakers and the Knicks were wearing throwback uniforms during the game, so the Lakers home gold uniforms were older versions. This was the game that Kobe Bryant surpassed Wilt Chamberlin as the youngest player to reach 20,000 points. Similarly, they wore the gold uniforms in a game against the Sixers two nights before with both teams again wearing throwback uniforms. However, during their January 31 game at Detroit, the Lakers wore their regular purple road jerseys despite the fact that it was a "Hardwood Classics Nights" game, with the Pistons wearing their 1958 home jerseys.

In a home game vs. the Boston Celtics on December 30, 2007, the Lakers again wore their gold throwbacks, but wore short shorts from the 1980's in the first half and returned to the longer ones for the second half.

Season-By-Season Records
Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, % = Win-Loss %

Why the fanlisting?
When I was growing up I was a huge Chicago Bulls fan. When Michael Jordan left the Bulls and the Bulls team split up and coach Phil Jackson became coach of the Los Angeles Lakers I wasn't a Los Angeles Lakers. I eventually started liking the Los Angeles Lakers. When I moved to California I became a big fan of them. Now that I live in Illinois I am still a big fan of the Los Angeles Lakers and I am also a fan of the Chicago Bulls but just not a huge fan as I was when I was little. I had always wanted to do a Los Angeles Lakers fanlisting when I became a fan of them but there was already one for them. Someone emailed me telling me that the fanlisting was available for application. I applied and am now the proud owner of this fanlisting.

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