Los Angeles Lakers: 10 most disappointing seasons in franchise history

9. The 2002-2003 Los Angeles Lakers losing while going for the four-peat

With all of the super teams, dynasties, and repeat champions in NBA history it is somewhat surprising that no team has ever won four NBA titles in a row. In fact, the last team to accomplish a three-peat was the Kobe and Shaq lead Lakers in 2001-02 the year before this one.

This team arguably had the best chance in the history of the league to pull of the pretty much impossible four-peat. That is why it was a giant disappointment for Lakers fans when this team failed to even reach the Western Conference Finals that season.

The San Antonio Spurs were definitely one of the Lakers’ biggest rivals during this era, and they were the team that stopped the four-peat in its tracks by defeating them 4-2 in the Western Conference Semifinals.

Kobe once said on the “All The Smoke” podcast

"“The talent, the coaching, everything in San Antonio was kind of a perfect storm. If they weren’t in the picture, we probably would have won 10 in a row.”"

He was probably taking this lost season into consideration when he made that confidently positive statement. If they would not have won 10 without the Spurs getting in the way, they could have certainly won an NBA record four in a row.

This season obviously was not a total disappointment because they won 50 games and beat a tough Minnesota team in the playoffs. However, this was one of the best teams in franchise history that did not win a title, so it has to be considered one of the biggest disappointments.

Jack Nicholson’s reaction to one of the calls in that playoff series against the Spurs (pictured above) perfectly symbolized every fan’s reaction when they lost that series and the disappointment felt from this particular season.