How The West Was Won - by the Lakers

I started this a while back, goaded by the basketball-illiterate Laker Trolls at BDC, and forgot about it until this morning.

I was irked by the Laker trolls' touting of their 30 Finals appearances and 15 championships (including the 5 from Minnesota) and yet their complete ignorance of the Mikan Dynasty and their complete lack of respect for the players of that era. They were so intent on running down the Celtics Russell Dynasty they were willing to diminish the achievements of their own NBA dynasty in order to do it.

So, I decided to sit down and started to give myself a history lesson. It is not up-to-date, as in 2010. That's because my focus was on the changes in the league from a conference perspective and, once the league stopped expanding with new franchises and moving franchises from East-to-West and vice versa, then the competition in the respective conferences were able to take on more of a normal look and feel. Established teams aren't picking up easy wins against newly minted expansion teams anymore, nor are feisty, established franchises being moved out of your conference in order to balance the league. If a team sucks it's because they suck, not because they're newborns.

Let me be very, very, very clear here. I am NOT running down the Lakers franchise. I am NOT running down this particular Laker team. This is what reporters refer to as a "tick-tock", a chronological statement of events in the order they took place. It does have a Lakers-oriented view. This doesn't mean I'm a Lakers fan, it means this was done with a view of the Lakers' history and the changes in their conference. I hope all this comes across. If not, the Zapper-wock will strike with jaws that bite and claws that catch.

Anyway, here goes an afternoon of research, out into the ether:

1949-1959, 11 seasons
6 WC titles, 5 championships for LA Lakers
EC vs WC record 5-6

NBA starts with 17 franchises, shrinks to 11 in 1950. It continued to shrink until it reached its smallest, 8 franchises, in 1954. The Rochester (NY) Royals of the Western Conference won the 1950 NBA championship. That should tell you right there just how east-oriented the NBA was. Upstate NY was considered “west”. The Minneapolis Lakers won their last championship in Minnesota in 1953. The first half of this period was pure turmoil as teams kept moving to stay afloat financially. Most succeeded, some didn’t. The Minneapolis Lakers were actually the Detroit Gems of the NBL, relocated.

Who were the Indianapolis Olympians? The Chicago Stags? The St. Louis Bombers? These are all Western Conference NBA teams from that era that folded prior to 1954 and no longer exist in any city. How do you rate the quality of the competition when 1/2 of the conference no longer exists and none of the above ever won a conference title? Mere cannon fodder for the teams that did survive, that’s how.




1960-1975, 16 seasons
9 WC titles, 1 championship for LA Lakers.
EC vs WC record 13-3. 81% winning percentage for the East.

1966 – Brand new Chicago Bulls franchise added to the Western Conference.
1967 – Brand new Seattle Supersonics franchise added to the Western Conference.
1967 – Brand new San Diego Rockets franchise added to Western Conference. Relocated to Houston in 1971.
1968 – Brand new Phoenix Suns franchise added to Western Conference.
1968 – 2x World Champions and 5x WC titleists, St. Louis Hawks relocate to Atlanta and are transferred to Eastern Conference.
1970 – Brand new Portland Trailblazers franchise added to Western Conference.



1976- 1979, 4 seasons
0 WC titles, 0 championships for LA Lakers
EC vs WC record 1-2.

1976 – ABA/NBA merger takes place. Denver Nuggets added to West, they win next 2 division titles in a row and almost wins 3rd. Dallas Chaparrals/San Antonio Spurs are in East. San Antonio won division titles in 5 of their first 6 seasons in the East.
1977 – Detroit Pistons transferred from Western Conference to East.
1978 – Buffalo Braves relocate to LA as the Clippers
1979 – New Orleans Jazz franchise, established in 1974, relocates to Utah after 5 years in New Orleans and is transferred to the Western Conference. The Jazz make its first playoff appearance, in either conference, in 1984.


1980 – Present, 29 seasons
15 WC titles, 9 championships for LA Lakers
EC vs WC record 15-14
2000-2009, EC vs WC record 4-5

1980 - Brand new Dallas Mavericks franchise is added to Western Conference.
1980 – Chicago Bulls transferred to Eastern Conference.
1980 – San Antonio Spurs transferred to Western Conference.
1980 – Houston Rockets transferred to Western Conference.