While the hysteria surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers over the last few months concerned fans following president of basketball operations Magic Johnson‘s resignation, history tells us that their success is all but a guaranteed cycle.
Since 1947, success for the Lakers is 16 championships and the last time they were champions was from 2009-2010 following the Pau Gasol trade. Almost a decade before that, a Kobe Bryant–Shaquille O’Neal tandem led to championships in 2000-2002. Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar also won it before that in 1988. The team’s cyclical pattern of success is a tradition that goes back decades.