What Was Your Favorite Laker Squad Of All Time?

The 2010 team

Beating the evil empire is always special and game 7 is the greatest basketball game ever, a war of attrition.

This was also the hardest one arguably (1988 was a slugfest as well). We limped into the playoffs that year and took every team's hardest punch. Several players were playing through injuries and we relied on a few last minute heroics such as Artest and Pau's tip ins to win games.

Then the 7 game series against you know who. Ron's defense against the wheelchair was key. That game 7, wow what a game. And it was against them, which makes it special. And to top it all off was Ron's press conference.

 

ironically, 2010 was the weakest of the 08-10 finals teams

 

Beg to differ my friend. 2008 we were sans Bynum and *with* Radmo. I’d take 2010 over 2008, even if Bynum played on one leg.

 

Huh? The 2010 team was definitely better than 2008 because they had Bynum. I’d argue they were better than 2009 because Artest was a better matchup against Pierce. I’m not sure that 2009 team beats the C Bags in 2010 without Ron Artest that’s how important he was.

 

IMO its 2009 > 2010 > 2008. We never got to see the 08 team fully healthy, so you can't really put them over two title teams. Artest was huge for the Pierce matchup specifically, but that 09 team overwhelmed opponents with size and skill every single night.

 

1986-87 Lakers, who somehow unseated the 1971-72 team that went 69-13 with a 33 game winning streak.

The 1986-87 team: 65-17 (easily a top 10 greatest NBA team):

Kareem C 7'2"
Magic. G 6'9" NBA MVP, Finals MVP
Coop G 6'5" DPOY, all-NBA First Team
AC Green F 6'9"
Worthy F 6'9"
Rambis. F 6'8"
Byron Scott G 6'3"
Mychal Thompson F 6' 10"

Wes Matthews
Adrian Branch
Mike Smrek
Billy Thompson
Frank Brickowski

Swept DEN in 1st round
Eliminated GSW in 5 games
Swept SEA in the WCF
Beat the damned C-Bags in 6 to win it all.

In one of those books about this era, I recall the discussion about training camp for this team. The previous season they had lost to HOU in the WCF 4-1 after winning Game 1 and every guy on the Lakers was pissed at their own performance. The buzz around the team as they prepared for this season was that they all knew they were the greatest team that had ever played, but just had to prove it. They did.

I remember the first game of that season: at HOU! Time for revenge! Whatta drag when we lost Game 1 of 82 to these guys, by 10 points.
Then they went on a 9 game winning streak. They beat the Bags in BOS to go to 16-4 in a game I'll never forget, 'cuz it was my b-day and man I hated the Bags. The Bags hadn't lost a game at home in over a year, a 49 game winning streak. Lakers shut them down in the 4th Q , winning the quarter 29-16. Magic: 31; Kareem 26; Worthy 25; Bird 26; Parish 23. Lakers 117; BOS 110.

Then we beat the Bags in the Finals. This Laker team played like a gleaming, fast, well-oiled machine.

Sorry to get all Old Skool on y'alls.

 

I knew we had elephants in the chat, but daaaannnnnggg, that is some amazing recollection.

it's awesome to have a team to root for that triggers such core memories. We are all truly blessed.