The Los Angeles Lakers are arguably the NBA’s most storied franchise by virtue of their 17 world championships. They’ve been so successful over the decades that even when they haven’t won it all, they have had some impressive squads that were memorable, not to mention talented, star-studded and very competitive.
Heading into the 1982-83 season, the Lakers were the defending champs and had won it all against the Philadelphia 76ers in two of the previous three seasons. The task for them was now to prove they were a team for the ages and not merely a great team that had a short, happy run before dissolving into irrelevance.
An embarrassment of riches
The early 1980s Lakers were centered around Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, guard Norm Nixon and forward Jamaal Wilkes, all of whom were All-Stars at least once during that time. The four led the team to the NBA title in 1980, but it would soon add more reinforcements.
Los Angeles acquired Bob McAdoo, a three-time scoring champion and former league MVP, early in the 1981-82 season for mere peanuts. Coming off the bench, he was a major factor in the team winning it all again that season.
Then, just days after winning the world championship, the Lakers had the No. 1 pick in the 1982 NBA Draft by virtue of an under-the-radar trade they had made two years prior. They used that pick to select James Worthy, a 6-foot-9 speedster forward who had just helped the University of North Carolina win the national title while earning the Most Outstanding Player award.
Thus, the 1982-83 iteration of the Lakers was as fully equipped as the United States military’s most feared fighter planes. The team’s rocket-powered fast break was even more potent, and therefore it was no surprise that they won 38 of their first 49 games.
Thunderbolts hit
Unfortunately, the Lakers started to struggle at midseason, and they were unable to generate the type of momentum they reeled off in November, December and January. One reason was the fact that McAdoo was sidelined in mid-February for nearly three months.
Then, with the regular season winding down, Worthy suffered a fractured tibia and was out for the season. Without him or McAdoo, the Lakers managed to finish with a 58-24 record and reach the NBA Finals for the third time in four years, but they were compromised. McAdoo had gotten hurt again in the playoffs, and Nixon would suffer a shoulder injury early in Game 1 of the championship series.
There, L.A. faced the Sixers again, but this was a different Sixers team. Instead of dealing with the offensively limited Caldwell Jones or the talented but disappointing Darryl Dawkins in the middle, it had to contend with Moses Malone, the 6-foot-10 bruiser who had just won his second straight regular season MVP.
Malone gave Abdul-Jabbar problems defensively and on the boards, especially since the Lakers were undermanned. Philly wasn’t to be denied, as it swept past the Lakers and won the NBA title behind the determined play of Malone and Julius Erving, not to mention one of the stingiest defenses ever.
More rings were in store for those Showtime Lakers. But first, they would have to fortify their roster by making some difficult moves, and they would have to endure a gut-wrenching loss to their ancient rivals that would cause them to find themselves and truly come of age.
