Era 4: The Kobe and Shaq (or Pau) Era
Some separate the Laker teams with Shaquille O’Neal from the ones with Pau Gasol, but since the common denominator for both was superstar Kobe Bryant, the choice here is to lump them together.
Following the demise of Showtime, the Lakers had several very good players (an aging and fading Worthy, Eddie Jones, Vlade Divac, Nick Van Exel and A.C. Green among them) but no superstars. As a result, over the next eight years, they got as far as the Western Conference finals just once.
Things changed after the Lakers acquired Bryant in a draft-day deal, signed O’Neal as a free agent, and three years later hired Phil Jackson to coach the team. They also added supporting players like Robert Horry, Rick Fox and Derek Fisher.
The team won three straight titles from 2000-02, setting a couple of milestones along the way. In 1999-2000, they won 67 regular-season games, second-most in team history. The following year they plowed through the postseason, winning 15 out of 16 playoff games (losing only in overtime to the Sixers in game 1 of the Finals).
After their defeat in the Finals in 2004, the Lakers traded Shaq and endured three lean years, including a losing campaign in 2005. But they dealt for Gasol midway through the 2007-08 season, and the Kobe-Pau tandem, aided by the likes of Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum and Fisher, guided the team to three straight Finals. They won back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010.
The results: five championships, seven trips to the Finals and four Western Conference titles in 11 years.