ESPN Ranks Lakers as Greatest Basketball Franchise in History

In a recent article for ESPN, John Hollinger ranks the NBA Franchises.  To no one’s surprise, he ranks the Los Angeles Lakers first and the Boston Celtics second.

No. 1: Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers are the greatest franchise ever because of their incredible collection of trademark stars.

1. LOS ANGELES LAKERS: 80.2 POINTS PER SEASON (1947-2010)

• Wins: 3,027
• Playoff wins: 426
• Series wins: 106
• Titles: 16
• All-Stars: 127
• Best player: Magic Johnson
• Best coach: Phil Jackson
• Best team: 1971-72 (69-13, won NBA title)
• Intangibles: +150. Endless stream of superstars — on the court and in the seats.

Magic. Kareem. Jerry West. Kobe. Shaq. When it comes to superstars, the Lakers are so far out in front of everybody else it’s not even funny — their all-time starting five would crush any other team’s; in fact, it might be better than that of the rest of the league’s put together. So star-studded is their legacy that I left Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor and George Mikan off my five-man team that opened this paragraph, also neglecting the likes of James Worthy, Bob McAdoo and Gail Goodrich

And those big names won, too. Although the Celtics have more championships, the Lakers have more of everything else — wins, playoff wins, playoff series wins and conference titles. About the only thing that hurts L.A. in the all-time rankings is the penalty for relocating from Minnesota to Los Angeles in the 1950s.

The story begins with the Mikan years up north, where he led Minneapolis to five championships in six seasons in the formative years of the NBA. As the league’s first dominant big man, he established something of a tradition.

FRANCHISE HISTORY

Los Angeles Lakers (1960-Present)

Minneapolis Lakers (1948-60)

Since then, the Lakers have almost always had at least one monstrous big man — Mikan, Wilt, Kareem, Shaq, Pau Gasol — and one electrifying perimeter star to go with him (Magic, Jerry West, Baylor, Kobe).  About the only thing the Lakers haven’t been able to do is best the Celtics head-to-head. In 11 meetings against Boston in the Finals, L.A. has prevailed just three times. In that regard, Baylor’s Minneapolis team got the ball rolling in 1958-59 in the team’s last season before heading west, and in the ’60s, Chamberlain and West were foiled by the Celtics five times

Ultimately, those Lakers broke through with a 69-13 season in 1971-72 that featured a 33-game winning streak — still a record for North American pro team sports — to win the team’s first title in L.A.  After a brief lull in the late ’70s, they would get five more rings when Magic arrived to join forces with Kareem. Although there was one more painful loss to Boston interposed — a seven-game defeat in 1984 — L.A. avenged it by becoming the first team in nearly two decades to repeat as champs, winning in 1987 and 1988. A hamstring injury to Magic Johnson in the Finals the next year derailed the Lakers’ quest for a three-peat, but they would get one a decade and a half later after Phil Jackson came to Tinseltown to guide Shaq and Kobe.

That team provided plenty of last-second excitement — most notably the alley-oop from Kobe to Shaq that cemented a Game 7 conference finals comeback win over Portland in 2000 — and produced one of the most dominant playoff runs in history with a 15-1 romp through the field in 2001.  Amazingly, the franchise has missed the playoffs only five times in its 62 years. The Lakers, who have played in seven Finals in the new century, are now only one title behind the hated Celtics after defending their title in 2010 with a dramatic seven-game win over Boston.

Lakers Vs Celics Game 7 NBA Finals Highest Ratings in 12 Years

Game 7 drew the highest preliminary rating for an NBA finals game since 1998. The Lakers’ 83-79 win Thursday night on ABC earned an 18.2 overnight rating. That’s the highest for an NBA game since Michael Jordan won his last championship with the Bulls in Game 6 of the 1998 finals against the Jazz, which posted a 22.9.  The rating was 32 percent higher than the only other Game 7 of the last 16 years. Pistons-Spurs in 2005 drew a 13.8.  Ratings represent the percentage of all homes with televisions tuned into a program. Overnight ratings measure the country’s largest markets.  The game drew a 39.7 rating in Los Angeles and a 33.9 in Boston.