Thursday, June 4, 2009

Congrats to all my Southern California Friends

Except I dont get it. I understand what a Trojan is (USC folks), but a Bruin (UCLA) and a Laker?



What is a Laker?

7 comments:

Tarzan said...

Bite me :-)

Kim Thomas said...

Why are you congratulating us? Are they playing? If so I guess they won.

Ruth Anne said...

I agree! I mean is LA really surrounded by a bunch of Lakes.

It was so weird that I had to google it.

Turns out the Lakers originally came from Minneapolis. Sounds like you need to be congratulating all your Mid-west friends.

Diane said...

I don't know what a Laker is and I am not happy that they are in the Finals again! I almost dislike them as much of the Spurs.

Queen B said...

good fact-digging Ruth!

Tarzan said...

so many misguided people .... sigh so brief history on the whay a dynasty is.....

First of all they are not related to any cheese heads fan :)

Second, to be named in same breath as spurs is pure Sacrilege :)

The Los Angeles Lakers are a National Basketball Association (NBA) team based in Los Angeles, California. The Lakers play their home games at Staples Center, which they share with their fellow NBA rival, the Los Angeles Clippers, and their sister team, the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA.[1]

The Lakers' franchise was founded in 1946 in Detroit, Michigan before moving to Minneapolis, where the team got its official title from the state's nickname, "Land of 10,000 Lakes."[2] The Lakers won five championships before relocating to Los Angeles in the 1960–61 NBA season. The Lakers lost all of their eight appearances in the NBA Finals in the 1960s, despite having help from Elgin Baylor and Jerry West. In 1972, the Lakers won their sixth title under coach Bill Sharman. The Lakers' popularity soared in the 1980s when they won five additional championships during a nine-year span with the leadership of Hall of Famers Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy and coach Pat Riley, the franchise's all-time leader in both regular season and playoff games coached and wins. Two of those championships during that span were against their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics. With the help of Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, and Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson, the Lakers advanced to six of the ten NBA Finals in the 2000s, winning three of them consecutively from 2000 to 2002 and losing in 2004 and in the 2008 NBA Finals without O'Neal.

The Lakers hold records for having (at the end of the 2007–08 season) the most wins (2,905), the highest winning percentage (61.5%), the most NBA Finals appearances (30), the second fewest non-playoff seasons with five (San Antonio Spurs has four), and the second-most NBA championships with 14, behind the Boston Celtics' 17.[3] They also hold the record for compiling the longest consecutive win streak (33) in U.S. professional team sports (also an NBA record) in the 1971–72 season.[4] 14 Hall of Famers have played for the Lakers, while four Hall of Famer (John Kundla, Bill Sharman, Pat Riley and Phil Jackson) have coached the team. Four Lakers (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant) have won the NBA Most Valuable Player award[5] for a total of 8 awards.

Anonymous said...

Well, that is more info than I needed. I always wondered why Bonneville High School was the Lakers.
Mom