Los Angeles Lakers

Detroit Gems to a ten-billion-dollar franchise

The club began in 1946 as the Detroit Gems of the National Basketball League and finished its only season there 4-44. The owners then sold it to Minnesota investors for $15,000, who moved it to Minneapolis and renamed it the Lakers after the state's ten-thousand-lakes slogan. With George Mikan at centre it won the NBL title in 1948, the BAA title in 1949, and four of the first five NBA championships, in 1950, 1952, 1953 and 1954. Mikan retired in 1954 and the team sank to 19 wins in 1957-58.

Bob Short moved the franchise to Los Angeles for the 1960-61 season, making it the NBA's first West Coast club. Elgin Baylor and Jerry West carried it to six Finals in the 1960s and lost all six to Boston, which is where the rivalry comes from. Wilt Chamberlain arrived in 1968; the 1971-72 side won 69 games, including 33 consecutive, still the league record, and took the title.

Jerry Buss bought the team in 1979 and ran it as entertainment as much as sport. His family held control until 30 October 2025, when the NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved Mark Walter, who also controls the Dodgers and the Sparks, as majority owner at a $10bn valuation. That is the highest control-sale figure in team sport, ahead of Bill Chisholm's $6.1bn purchase of the Celtics earlier the same year. The Buss family retained roughly 15 per cent and Jeanie Buss stays on as governor for at least five years.

The work that counts: seventeen NBA titles

Magic Johnson was drafted in 1979 and, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Pat Riley coaching, produced five championships in nine years: 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988. Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, coached by Phil Jackson, won three in a row in 2000, 2001 and 2002, the first of them in the team's new downtown home, Staples Center, which it had moved into in 1999 after seven years at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena and 32 at the Forum.

The Pau Gasol trade brought titles in 2009 and 2010. LeBron James signed in 2018, Anthony Davis was acquired in 2019, and the 2020 championship was the franchise's 17th, levelling Boston's count. Fourteen numbers hang in the rafters — 8, 13, 16, 21, 22, 24, 25, 32, 33, 34, 42, 44, 52 and 99 — Bryant accounting for two of them.

One trade, one hamstring, one sweep

In February 2025 the Lakers sent Davis to Dallas for Luka Dončić, a deal with no modern precedent in terms of the age and standing of the player acquired. The first full season of it, 2025-26, ended 53-29: a second consecutive Pacific Division title and the fourth seed in the West, with JJ Redick as head coach.

Dončić led the league at 33.5 points a game across 64 appearances, alongside 7.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists, and the team went 15-2 in March while he averaged 37.5 points and 7.4 assists. He then tore up a hamstring in early April against Oklahoma City and missed the rest of the regular season and the whole of the playoffs. Austin Reaves averaged 23.3 points for the season, James 20.9.

Without Dončić the Lakers still beat Houston 4-2 in the first round — James averaged 23.2 points, 7.3 assists and 6.7 rebounds across the postseason — before Oklahoma City swept them 4-0 in the conference semi-finals. Dončić said afterwards that he had thought the group could compete for a championship, that missing it was disappointing, that he felt he had let the team down, and that it was motivating for this season. He is healthy going into it.

A summer spent replacing LeBron James

At the opening of free agency in 2026, the agent Rich Paul told the Lakers that James would play elsewhere. James announced on 25 July 2026 that he was joining the Philadelphia 76ers, and the move became official on 27 July, on a two-year deal reported at $8m, after he had also weighed Golden State, Cleveland, Miami, Denver and Minnesota. He had spent eight seasons in Los Angeles. The coming campaign is the first Lakers season since 2017-18 without him.

Reaves was the one re-signing of consequence: a four-year maximum worth $185m with a player option in the final year, agreed before any other club could negotiate, which makes him the highest-paid undrafted player in NBA history. He declined a $14.9m player option to get there.

The centre position was addressed expensively. On 1 July the Lakers acquired Walker Kessler from Utah in a sign-and-trade on a four-year, $130m contract carrying a player option and a full trade kicker, paying unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033 plus pick swaps in 2028 and 2030. Kessler missed most of last season with a left shoulder injury. Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Kevon Looney and Ziaire Williams also arrived; Deandre Ayton, Marcus Smart, Rui Hachimura, Luke Kennard and Jaxson Hayes left.

Standing, as of mid-October 2026

The preseason finished 2-2 — two wins over Sacramento, 127-103 and 114-110, and two losses to Golden State, 98-124 and 89-101 — and Redick has named rebounding and offensive organisation as the unresolved problems.

The roster itself is still one body over the limit. Los Angeles went into camp with 16 guaranteed contracts against a 15-man ceiling, and on 14 October 2026 the reporter Jake Fischer had the Bucks, Lakers and Grizzlies all exploring trades ahead of the league's roster deadline on Monday 19 October at 5pm Eastern. Rob Pelinka has pointed to a consolidation deal — two players out, one in — as the way through it. Dalton Knecht sits in the background of that, squeezed by Grimes and Matisse Thybulle on the wing.

The season starts at home against Golden State on 21 October, 7pm Pacific, in the second half of an ESPN doubleheader on the second night of the regular season, behind Minnesota against Miami. It is the first time since 2018-19 that the Lakers have not been handed opening night. The fixture with the heaviest freight is Christmas Day, when James returns to Crypto.com Arena with Philadelphia.

The building

Crypto.com Arena holds 18,910 for basketball across six levels, with about two-thirds of the seats in the lower bowl, plus 162 suites and 2,515 club seats. It passed its 25th anniversary in October 2024 and completed the third phase of a nine-figure renovation in time for it: a 5,500 sq ft Daktronics overhead scoreboard, the indoor-outdoor City View Terrace bar on the 300 level looking over L.A. Live and the downtown skyline, rebuilt concessions and an expanded reusable-cup scheme. Two Amazon Just Walk Out markets were added at section 118 and section 301; the building is cashless throughout.

Outside, Star Plaza carries statues of Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Oscar De La Hoya, with Kobe Bryant memorials added from 2024. Across the 2025-26 season the Lakers drew 773,047 spectators, tenth in the league.