It was 50 years ago this month that the NBA approved the move of the Minneapolis Lakers to Los Angeles. In 1989, the NBA returned to Minnesota with the expansion Timberwolves.
Patrick Reusse: If Lakers had stayed, would we have had all that magic?
It's fantasy to think that if Minneapolis had kept the team, there would have been the same success in the City of Lakes.
April 11, 2010 at 12:16PM
I'm beginning to think we got the short end of the stick.
The Lakers have won 10 titles (20.4 percent) and played in 24 NBA Finals (48.9 percent) in their prior 49 seasons in L.A. The Timberwolves have not attained either distinction in 21 seasons in Minneapolis.
The last act of the Minneapolis Lakers came on April 11, 1960, when they took Jerry West as the draft's second pick. West teamed with Elgin Baylor to lead the new L.A. franchise to five finals from 1962 through 1968 -- and lost all to the Boston Celtics.
Jack Kent Cooke had bought the Lakers in 1965. Three years later, Wilt Chamberlain was balking at his salary with the Philadelphia 76ers. Cooke seized on this, sending Darrall Imhoff, Jerry Chambers and Archie Clark to Philly for Chamberlain.
Cooke agreed to pay Chamberlain a $250,000 salary -- a huge figure that was $150,000 more than West was making.
Wilt's contract could provide the first evidence that the greatness surrounding the Lakers in Los Angeles was unlikely had they remained in Minneapolis.
Back in 1968, Glen Taylor was a hard-working salesman for Carlson Craft printing, meaning becoming a Minnesotan with an urge to own an NBA team and pay an unprecedented salary would've been a long-shot exacta.
There are several other factors that have favored a Lakers' team located in Los Angeles over one in Minneapolis:
• Kareem Abdul Jabbar (as Lew Alcindor) landed in Milwaukee as the first selection in the 1969 draft. He led the upstart Bucks to an NBA title in 1971. Before the 1975-76 season, he requested a trade to the Lakers or the Knicks, saying Milwaukee did not fit his "cultural needs."
The Bucks traded him to the Lakers for Elmore Smith, Brian Winters, Dave Meyers and Junior Bridgeman. The guess here is Minneapolis had the same cultural shortcomings as did Milwaukee.
• Shaquille O'Neal played four seasons in Orlando, took the Magic to the finals once, and then hustled to L.A. as a free agent after the 1996 season. Again, the delights of Minneapolis might not have overshadowed Orlando with rap master Shaq.
• Jerry West was running the Lakers in 1996. He watched Kobe Bryant, only 17, in summer ball and started drooling. Charlotte also wanted Bryant.
With a nod to West, agent Arm Tellem said it was an "impossibility" that Kobe would play for the Hornets. Charlotte took Lakers center Vlade Divac for the rights to Bryant.
Would Minneapolis have been a possibility for Kobe? Again, we're guessing, "Nah."
The Lakers won their first title in L.A. with Chamberlain as the finals' MVP in 1972. They won a title in 1985 with Kareem as the MVP. They won three in a row from 2000 to 2002 with Shaq as the MVP. They won last season with Kobe as the MVP. That's six titles that would have escaped the Minneapolis Lakers.
And there's a factor beyond the appeal of L.A.'s bright lights that favors these Lakers over our replacement franchise: luck.
In 1976, the Lakers allowed guard Gail Goodrich, 33, to sign with the Jazz as a free agent. This was the era of compensation for veteran free agents, and the Lakers received first-rounders for 1978 and 1979.
The Jazz finished with the West's worst record in 1979. Chicago was the worst in the East. The Lakers won a coin flip and took Magic Johnson with the first pick. Second prize for Chicago was David Greenwood.
Johnson was the finals' MVP for title teams in 1980, 1982 and 1987. He was the superstar in '88, even as James Worthy claimed the MVP award.
Since we've had zero NBA luck in these parts since the Lakers left in April 1960, there's no way Magic fell in our laps. And that makes the reality that 10 of the L.A. Lakers' 10 titles wouldn't have been won here.
Who needs reality, when a Minnesotan can watch the Lakers run around Target Center on Friday night and imagine 10 more titles that should have been ours.
Patrick Reusse can be heard noon-4 weekdays on AM-1500 KSTP. • preusse@startribune.com
