Lakers championships, finals appearances, history and more

The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the most prestigious teams not just in the NBA but in all of American Sports. If you make a list of the greatest and most influential basketball players of all time there is a good chance that most of the list will include superstars who at one point played on the Lakers.

There is not a team in the NBA that has had more success than the Lakers. The only team in American Sports with more success is the New York Yankees, who got a couple-decade head start.

How many championships have the Los Angeles Lakers won?

The Los Angeles Lakers have won 17 championships with the most recent coming in 2020 with LeBron James and Anthony Davis leading the way. This broke a decade-long streak without a championship, which is one of the longest streaks in franchise history.

Five of the franchise’s 17 championships came when the team was the Minneapolis Lakers in 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953 and 1954. Los Angeles then won its only title of the Jerry West era in 1972 before paving the way for the Showtime Lakers.

The Showtime Lakers won five titles in total in 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988. Twelve years passed until Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal won three consecutive championships from 2000-2002. It took another seven years for Kobe to reach the mountaintop again, winning back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010.

How many NBA Finals appearances do the Los Angeles Lakers have?

The Los Angeles Lakers have played in the NBA Finals 32 times, giving the team a 17-15 record. This is by far the most NBA Finals appearances in league history as the Boston Celtics have the second most at 22 with a 17-5 record.

Most of the Lakers’ NBA Finals losses came during Bill Russell’s run of dominance for the Celtics in the 1960s. From 1959 through 1970, the Lakers made the NBA Finals and lost eight times. Seven of those eight loses were against the Celtics.

In total, the Lakers have lost nine times to the Celtics in the NBA Finals, two times to the New York Knicks, two times to the Detroit Pistons, one time to the Philadelphia 76ers and one time to the Chicago Bulls.

How many playoff appearances do the Los Angeles Lakers have?

As of the start of the 2023-24 season, the Los Angeles Lakers have made the playoffs 63 times in 75 possible seasons. Historically speaking, the Lakers have made the playoffs in 84% of the total seasons that the franchise has played.

Most of these missed playoff berths came recently as well. Los Angeles missed the playoffs six years in a row from 2013 through 2019 and missed the playoffs again in the 2021-22 season. That means that over half of the franchise’s missed playoff seasons have come in the last decade.

Prior to this last decade, Los Angeles had made the playoffs 60 times in 65 years, which is a success rate of 92.3%.

Do the Lakers have the most championships in NBA history?

As it stands right now, the Lakers are tied for the most championships in NBA history with the Boston Celtics. LA and Boston have a huge lead over the rest of the pack. There are only five NBA teams with at least five championships to their name.

• Los Angeles Lakers — 17
• Boston Celtics — 17
• Golden State Warriors — 7
• Chicago Bulls — 6
• San Antonio Spurs — 5

If the Lakers win championship No. 18 in 2024 then the team will have as many championships as the Warriors, Bulls and Spurs combined. As it stands today, the Lake Show has won 22% of every NBA Championship.