Los Angeles Lakers: Kareem’s birthday and the shot that birthed a dynasty

Although he wasn’t a lifelong Laker like Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson or a larger-than-life personality like Shaquille O’Neal or Wilt Chamberlain, today we celebrate the birthday of a player who is undoubtedly one of the most successful, intuitive, and impactful Los Angeles Lakers of all time: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Over the course of his 20-year NBA career, he accomplished a considerable amount. By the time he retired in 1989, Kareem had won six championships, six regular-season MVP awards, two scoring titles, and appeared in an NBA-record 19 All-Star games. As if that wasn’t enough of a resume, Kareem is also the NBA’s all-time leading scorer with 38,387 career points.

On his 73rd birthday, I’d like to shine a light on the illustrious career of the civil rights activist, actor, and NBA superstar. Whether it’s race-related riots in his home of New York, conversion to Islam and name change in the early 1970s, or the death of his friend and co-star Bruce Lee, Jabbar has lived through a considerable amount in his 73 years both on and off the basketball court.

In honor of the indelible impression he’s left on the game of basketball and our world, I’d like to celebrate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s birth by acknowledging the moment he helped birth a dynasty: Friday, October 12th, 1979.

But first, we have to look at how Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and the Los Angeles Lakers, got there.

Although Kareem was able to lead the Milwaukee Bucks to a championship alongside fellow NBA legend Oscar Robertson in 1971, the team would slowly regress as Robertson aged. During the 1974-1975 season, this regression culminated in the first losing season of Kareem’s entire basketball career when his Robertson-less Bucks team went just 38-44.

Due to the team’s subpar play, the mixed reception of his conversion to Islam, and his pending free agency, Kareem was dealt to the Los Angeles Lakers for Junior Bridgeman, Dave Meyers, Elmore Smith and Brian Winters in one of the most lopsided trades in NBA history.

Although the Lakers acquired the best player in the league, Kareem was the first to admit that it takes more than one player to win a championship.

His prediction rained true. It would take a few years before this move would lead to a return to glory for the Los Angeles Lakers.

In his first year with the team, the Lakers finished just 40-42. Behind head coach and former Laker Jerry West, the 1976-1977 team made massive improvements and won 53 games. However, the remainder of the 1970s would see the Lakers fail to make the finals and capture an elusive NBA title.

Although it’s hard to remember a time before the 16 banners that currently hang in the rafters of Staples Center, the early years in Los Angeles were far from joyous.

Despite George Mikan and other greats leading the Lakers to their first five rings, all of those championships came before the team moved from Minneapolis.

In the 1960s, the Lakers were vanquished by the Boston Celtics six times in 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968, and 1969. Laker legend Elgin Baylor went his entire career without winning a championship. Although dubbed “Mr. Clutch,” Jerry West was just 1-8 in his nine NBA Finals appearances.

Even though he held countless records and was arguably the best player in the history of the game at the time, Wilt Chamberlain won only one championship as a Laker.

So there you have it. The Los Angeles Lakers were a team most famous for coming up short. With almost 20 years in Los Angeles, the team had left their winning ways in Minneapolis and had just one title in almost two decades. Hardly the dynasty we know today. However, in the 1979-1980 season, that would all change.

With the team struggling, Jack Kent Cooke would sell the team to Dr. Jerry Buss and begin the golden age of the Los Angeles Lakers franchise. A trade with the Utah Jazz would send NCAA star and future Hall of Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson to the team to play alongside Abdul-Jabbar. The duo’s strong connection would be evident from the start.

That brings us back to Friday, October 12th 1979.

With just two seconds left on the clock in the season opener against the San Diego Clippers, Don Ford inbounded the ball into Kareem who launched his patented skyhook from the free-throw line to win the game 103-102. The Lakers were now 1-0 on the season.

Kareem would finish with 29 points, 10 rebounds, two assists, four blocks, and a modest postgame interview.

When asked what the play was, Kareem humbly admitted “The play was to go to Magic for a lob, but everybody was covered. They just hit me and I shot it.”

Although the 32-year old veteran handled the situation like another day at the office, rookie Earvin “Magic” Johnson and others leapt into the captain’s arms and celebrated like they had just won a championship.

This was no ordinary season opener and, although just a regular-season win and the beginning of a grueling 82-game season, that shot, the reaction from Magic, and the roar of the San Diego fans would set the tone for their 1980 championship season.

This shot would not only mark the beginning of that year’s title run, but the beginning of five titles for the Lakers throughout the 80s. It would also bring an end to the dark ages of the NBA that saw playoff games reduced to tape delay and usher in an era of immense popularity for the NBA and sport of basketball.

The Lakers themselves would increase their title count tenfold over the next 30 years and amass the second-highest win percentage of any NBA franchise.

As we wish Kareem a Happy 73rd Birthday today, we can’t help but wonder how differently things could have gone had this shot not gone in.