Led by Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, and Gail Goodrich, the Los Angeles Lakers won 33 straight games in the 1971-72 season, the most in NBA history. Not only did they win, they dominated--destroying opponents by an average margin of 16 points and finishing the season with an NBA-best record of 69-13.

John Kundla was the first head coach for the Minneapolis Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and its predecessors, the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and the National Basketball League (NBL), serving 12 seasons, from 1947 to 1959. His Lakers teams won six league championships, one in the NBL, one in the BAA, and four in the NBA.

The Lakers drafted Elgin Baylor in the 14th round of the 1956 NBA Draft, but Baylor opted to stay in school. After leading the Seattle University Chieftains (now known as the Redhawks) to the NCAA championship game in 1958, Baylor was drafted again by the Lakers--this time with the No. 1 overall pick of the 1958 NBA Draft. The rest is history.

One of the pioneers of professional basketball, George Mikan redefined it as a game of so-called big men with his prolific rebounding, shot blocking, and his ability to shoot over smaller defenders. He was so dominant, in fact, that he prompted several NBA rule changes, including the introduction of the goaltending rule, the widening of the foul lane (known as the "Mikan Rule"), and the creation of the shot clock.

On December 20, 2005, Kobe Bryant scored 62 points in three quarters against the Dallas Mavericks. Entering the fourth quarter, Bryant outscored the entire Mavericks team 62-61, the only time a player has done this through three quarters since the introduction of the shot clock.

The 1973-74 season was the first in which blocked shots were officially recorded by the NBA, and Elmore Smith set a still-standing record of 17 blocks in a game against Portland on October 28, 1973.

Using his trademark "skyhook" shot, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar established himself as one of the league's top scorers. His contributions were a key component in the "Showtime" era of Lakers basketball.

Vlade Divac, one of the first European players to have an impact in the NBA, earned a reputation for flopping, or deceiving the officials into calling a foul on the other team by purposely falling to the floor upon contact with an opposing player. Veteran NBA forward P. J. Brown claimed that Divac might have been the best of all time at flopping. Divac freely admitted doing so, adding that he usually did it when he felt like the officials had missed some calls and owed him.

Shortly before the start of the lockout-shortened 1998-99 NBA season, the Chicago Bulls released future Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman. With his sister acting as his agent at the time, Rodman joined the Los Angeles Lakers but averaged a mere 2.1 points per game and was released after just 23 games.

On July 9, 2018, the Lakers signed LeBron James to a four-year, $154 million contract. After blowing out the Warriors on Christmas Day, Los Angeles improved their record to 20-14, but James suffered a groin injury in the process. He ultimately missed a career-high 17 consecutive games, and the Lakers fell out of playoff contention without him.