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The 10 greatest Los Angeles Lakers teams of all-time

By Cameron Salce

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA - OCTOBER 11: The Los Angeles Lakers celebrate with the trophy after winning the 2020 NBA Championship Final over the Miami Heat in Game Six of the 2020 NBA Finals at AdventHealth Arena at the ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on October 11, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA - OCTOBER 11: The Los Angeles Lakers celebrate with the trophy after winning the 2020 NBA Championship Final over the Miami Heat in Game Six of the 2020 NBA Finals at AdventHealth Arena at the ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on October 11, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images) /
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Los Angeles Lakers
Los Angeles Lakers (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) /

From Wilt and Jerry’s long winning streak, to LeBron and AD’s title in the bubble, the Lakers have had a lot of great teams. This list takes a stab at ranking the purple and gold’s best teams of all-time.

This year’s Los Angeles Lakers squad has started the season out as hot as about any other team in their history, their 7-0 start on the road is a franchise record. It had me wondering is this one of the best Lakers rosters of all-time, and also where does last year’s championship roster rank among the best Lakers teams to ever take the court?

Throughout all the eras of the NBA, one thing has been consistent, the Lakers have been a perennial title contender. The Lakers have had more than 10 championship teams since their arrival in Los Angeles and that is why it was tremendously difficult to narrow down the top 10 most talented Lakers rosters of all-time.

It almost comes down to which era of Lakers basketball represents that sort of championship nostalgia for each individual. A young Lakers fan today might rank last year’s team a lot higher than fans with a little more experience under their belt that saw the 33 straight wins and the days of Wilt Chamberlain.

Personally, growing up watching the dominance of the Kobe and Shaq teams and especially the year they only had one playoff loss in 2001, makes that era tough to beat. However, my father might have something to say because he had season tickets to Showtime and saw the brilliance of Magic and Kareem first hand, so he might rank them in his top spot.

To make this list even easier to narrow down, it only includes teams since the Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1960. Sorry, George Mikan, this list does not include any of your championship teams, but that does not disregard his Lakers that were the first NBA dynasty, winning five championships in their first six years in existence.

Pretty much all of the teams included on this list won the title, so that was a qualification most teams had to meet in order to be on the list. In order to be towards the top of the list, the teams had to break some sort of spectacular team record like most wins in a row or the least losses in an entire postseason.

These are the ten best Lakers rosters looking at how deep the team’s roster is on paper, the star power it included in the starting line up, and if it pulled off the ultimate goal of winning a championship. It is also comparing the teams to their competition that season, rather than a direct comparison of how they would have fared on the court against each other.

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