The Los Angeles Lakers: 50 Amazing Years in the City of Angels
by The Los Angeles Times Sports Staff
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Book Summary Information
Author: The Los Angeles Times Sports StaffEditor: Narda Zacchino
Photographer: Getty Images
Foreword: Phil Jackson
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-10-28
ISBN: 0982324200
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Time Capsule Press, LLC
Book Reviews of The Los Angeles Lakers: 50 Amazing Years in the City of Angels
Book Review: loving L.A... loving the Lakers...
Summary: 5 Stars
When the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, their arrival was met with thousands of fans. When the Lakers migrated here from Minneapolis in 1960, well, there was this four paragraphed newspaper article proclaiming that the team had opened their drills. Nowadays the Lakers own Los Angeles like no other sports franchise, the Dodgers decidedly having taken a backseat. The Lakers, in fact, is one of the most prominent, most sexy brand names in sports. With the book THE LOS ANGELES LAKERS: 50 AMAZING YEARS IN THE CITY OF ANGELS, editor Narda Zacchino has put together an impressive effort in chronicling the Lakers' history in La-La Land. In chronological order, Zacchino compiles over 300 exquisite archival photos from Getty Images and resurrects hoary newspaper clippings and selected columns from the writers of the L. A. Times sports staff. This book guides you down the decades; it gives you a strong sense of what the team incarnations were like respective to their eras. The barnstorming days with Baylor and West. The coming of Wilt Chamberlain. The Showtime dynasty. The Shaq and Kobe years. And, briefly, the Kobe and Gasol era.
And, in between the glory days in the sun, fester the down times and the doldrum times, when folks like Sedale Threatt and Elden Campbell and, later, Smush Parker and Kwame Brown were the ones we pinned our hopes on. And looming large, the multiple heartbreaks at the hands of the hated Boston Celtics. This is an elegant and indispensable oversized coffee table book, and it feels so dauntingly hefty that after I got done savoring each page, I could've wandered into the woods and clobbered a grizzly bear with it. But I didn't.
So many surprises in this book, so many things I hadn't known before. Did you know that Doris Day was the very first Hollywood celeb to regularly attend Laker games? Phil Jackson's foreword kicks things off, and his contribution is an overview of the Lakers' history in Los Angeles. The prologue mentions the team's thirteen years in Minneapolis, but it's a brief mention; it's a two-paged prologue. This book, after all, isn't titled MINNEAPOLIS LAKERS: 13 AMAZING YEARS IN THE STATE OF 10,000 LAKES.
We then soak in stories telling of the team's early struggles in L.A., of how the team would ride around the city in a vehicle and try to drum up business over the speaker system, of how the general manager's wife would wash the Laker jerseys at home, of how the Lakers family would anxiously keep tabs on the attendance count - the GM's wife had the clicker - knowing that they were only in the black if attendance hit the four thousand mark. And how it all started turning around when Chick Hearn began broadcasting the games. Old Golden Throat coined countless memorable phrases that have since become part and parcel of the lexicon of basketball. Still, Chick Hearn's dynamic, staccato delivery would've amounted to diddly squat if the Lakers hadn't performed on the court. But the Lakers performed. Did they ever.
Starting out, I meant to only read the thing over an extended period of time. I cracked the book open and ended up reading well into the night, fully absorbed. The stories make for terrific reading, and they give you a telling peek into the cultures and historical contexts of the different eras. The articles I most enjoyed come from the incomparable Jim Murray, and I have two favorites. His "Blood on the Floor" (published February 20, 1962) touches on yet another ugly incident between the Lakers and the Celtics, and yet Murray's sly wit and humor had me laughing throughout. Same with "A Wild-Mannered Laker In Disguise" (May 16, 1982), which is an ode to Kurt Rambis's lunchpail heroics. Jim Murray never failed at being a real pleasure to read.
For those fully immersed in stats, you get stuff such as each year's roster of coach and players and that team's win-loss record and how far it advanced in the playoffs, lists of Lakers record holders, and tons of fun facts. For me, though, it's all about the wonderful stories and the nostalgia-drenched images. And, to demonstrate the Lakers' resiliency and continuing dominance - the team had just won the 2009-2010 NBA championship - this beautiful coffee table book, THE LOS ANGELES LAKERS: 50 AMAZING YEARS IN THE CITY OF ANGELS, one year after it's been published, is already dated.
Summary of The Los Angeles Lakers: 50 Amazing Years in the City of Angels
The Los Angeles Lakers, 2009 NBA Champions and one of the most storied and illustrious franchises in the National Basketball Association, celebrate 50 years in Los Angeles in 2010. Since moving from Minneapolis in 1960, pioneering the NBA s expansion to the West Coast, The Lakers have won 10 NBA Championships, 24 Western Conference/Division titles, and 20 Pacific Division titles, and finished in the playoffs all but four seasons in the last half century. Some of the greatest players in NBA history have worn the Lakers jersey including Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Gail Goodrich, James Worthy and four of the NBA s Most Valuable Players Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O Neal and Kobe Bryant. Seven LA Lakers were inducted into the Hall of Fame, as were head coaches Bill Sharman, Pat Riley and Phil Jackson. The team holds the record for the longest consecutive win streak in professional sports (33) and several NBA records including the most regular season wins and highest winning percentage over the past three decades. The Los Angeles Lakers: 50 Amazing Years in the City of Angels takes a look back at the heartbreaking rivalry with the Boston Celtics in the 60s, fast-break Showtime basketball of 80s, and dominance as four-time NBA champions this past decade. The story is told in more than 300 archival photos from Getty Images and text from the Los Angeles Times sports staff, including columns from the late Pulitzer Prize winner Jim Murray, with a foreword by Phil Jackson.Professional Books
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