The LA Lakers have come full circle. Although the LA Lakers team has come thousands of miles, won many championships, and morphed into a lot of different forms, the Lakers that won the title in 2000 are extraordinarily similar to the team that started it all back in Minnesota. Many people wonder how a basketball team from southern California got a nickname like Lakers. The permit actually was nicknamed the LA Lakers in its days in Minneapolis, and determined to keep the name when it moved to LA.

Although the unique Lakers team was not a leading dynasty like some of its later versions, it did win a championship while being led by a leading center. George Mikan, a bespectacled Midwesterner, was in fact considered the first truly dominant big man in the professional game's history. After the Mikan era ended, the LA Lakers entered a bit of a down period. So the LA Lakers team decided a change of scenery would be in order, and moved to Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Lakers entered their golden era in the 1970s. Center Lew Alcindor, who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, came to the LA Lakers from Milwaukee and remained the best center in the game. Along with James Worthy and Magic Johnson, who was drafted out of Michigan State following the 1979 season, the LA Lakers started the Showtime era. Worthy, who came out of the storied University of North Carolina program, was a great inside presence who could score and rebound with beside the best opposition. Johnson is widely careful one of the top five players in the history of the NBA. Not only could he do all (he once played all five positions in a Finals game), he could do all well. At 6'9", he was too big for an opposing point guard to handle and was quick sufficient to match up against the other team's front line. With these players, and sharpshooter Michael Cooper handling the perimeter, the LA Lakers conquered the Western Conference year in and year out, and formed what some believe is the greatest rivalry in NBA history against the Boston Celtics.

The LA Lakers continued to dominate until they were dethroned by the Chicago Bulls in the 1991 Finals. Soon after this, Johnson announces that he was HIV positive and retired. He came back to the game, once as a player and once as a coach for a short time, but the Lakers dynasty was over.

Many, though, foresaw a return to the golden era when center Shaquille O'Neal came to LA as a free agent from Orlando and the Lakers team made a draft day trade for young Kobe Bryant. After a few unsatisfactory playoff exits and some seasons of internal bickering, the Los Angeles Lakers team finally put it all together in 2000 and won the NBA title. Some think that the dissimilarity was the hiring of coach Phil Jackson, who was the man behind the Bulls' run to glory. Under the leadership of Shaq, the Lakers have come back to where they in progress, and as O'Neal and Bryant continue to mature, the LA Lakers may return to the best days in their history.

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