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Los Angeles Lakers fans can be forgiven if they are not really upset by the news that LeBron James, a unique generation talent, has decided to join their team. After all, they have watched this scenario be played since the late 1960s.
The Minneapolis Lakers of the 1950s became a power dynasty after the acquisition of George Mikan when a competitive league in which he was playing was folded. The franchise continues to be relevant thanks to local stars like Elgin Baylor and Jerry West, but from the Wilt Chamberlain acquisition in 1968, the team has shown a knack for knowing when his Local talent needs a power star injection.
James, with whom they agreed to bond Sunday, is one of four players, each of them joining the Lakers reasonably close to their prime, who have a legitimacy to rank among the 10 best NBA players of all time.
There are those who might try to include Karl Malone, Gary Payton, Dwight Howard and Steve Nash in a list of highlights of the team's acquisition, but beyond Howard – a rental that did not work for a variety of reasons – these players had already lost several stages at the time of their arrival.
A look at the acquisitions of the Four Great Lakers reveals similar themes in terms of player deciding that Los Angeles was the right home for them, their previous teams having been powerless enough to stop them, and, in what could be a good news for current Lakers fans, disappointed by the current season of the five-season playoffs, they led to the championships.
Wilt Chamberlain
Acquired by Commerce, July 9, 1968
: 32
Achievements: Most Valuable Player Four Times, four times, champion at a resumption of his 10th season
Chamberlain, who in 1968 was the NBA The top scorer of all time, was considered the best offensive player that the game had ever seen and had come from. a season in which he averaged 24.3 points, 23.8 rebounds and 8.6 badists per game. His Philadelphia 76ers had been eliminated from the playoffs in the second round, and the shot against him at that moment was that he was not a winner like Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics. He wanted to go ahead, so he joined a Lakers team that already had Elgin Baylor and Jerry West but who, until then, was unable to dominate the Celtics in the final.
Trade: The Lakers sent to the 76ers Jerry Chambers, Archie Clark and Darrall Imhoff
In the words of his coach (dramatically sober): "On all that we are said Butch van Breda Kolff, coach of the Lakers. "We had our rebound problems last year, but I do not consider them this year."
] How it turned out: Chamberlain played the last five seasons of his career for the Lakers, 3 in the final.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Acquired through Trade, June 16, 1975
Age in its early Lakers: 29 [19659002] Achievements: Six-time star player, three-time best player and one-time champion entering his seventh season.
Abdul-Jabbar was a force of nature for the Milwaukee Bucks, leading the team to an NBA He was only playing in the third year of the team's existence and he was coming out from one season with an average of 30 points, 14 rebounds and 4.1 badists per game. But with Oscar Robertson retired, the Bucks missed the playoffs in 1974-75 and Abdul-Jabbar really wanted to get out of the small town, saying, "I'm not criticizing people here, but Milwaukee is not Not what I mean.The things I tell are not in Milwaukee. "The Lakers, beyond playing in the city where Abdul-Jabbar went to university, were a strange choice because Gail Goodrich was the only really important player at that time, and the veteran of the 1972 champion team was already 32 years old, but Abdul-Jabbar brought them back to winning titles in his fifth season with the L & # 3939; team.
Trade: The Bucks sent Abdul-Jabbar and Walt Wesley to the Lakers for Junior Bridgeman, Elmore Smith, Brian Winters and Dave Meyers.
Quote from one of the guys was traded for: "Frankly, I think the Bucks really got the best of the case," Bridgeman said
How it turned out: Abdul-Jabbar played his final 14 seasons for the Lakers, winning five titles and retiring as the NBA's all-time leading scorer, a record that he still holds.
Shaquille O. Neal
Signed as a free agent, July 18, 1996
Age in his early Lakers: 24
Achievements completed: Part-time NBA All-Star and once finalist in his fifth season.
O 'Neal, despite his young age, was already one of the most dominant players in the game, and was coming back from a season where he had averaged 26.6 points, 11 rebounds and 2.9 badists. He had formed a formidable partnership with Anfernee Hardaway and had already led Orlando Magic to a final, and in his last season with this team, he took them to the Eastern Conference Finals. Orlando made the biggest bid at O 'Neal, but the big center was yearning for something new and he chose to sign with the Lakers. At the time, he had no way of knowing that the rookie that the team had just fished out, Kobe Bryant, would prove to be a perfect complement to him on the court (no matter how they went). Heard badly everywhere else).
The case: He signed a seven-year contract worth $ 121 million
Quote from the man himself (which would be pretty prophetic): is for good, "said O. Neal. "I am a military child, used to relocate every three or four years."
How did it go: O. Neal stayed there for seven years, but at that time, the relationship between Bryant and him had deteriorated badly. The team traded at the Miami Heat for Caron Butler, Brian Grant, Lamar Odom and two draft picks, but not before he and Bryant took them to three championships.
LeBron James
Accepted conditions as a free agent, July 1, 2018
Age at debut at the Lakers: 33
] Achievements: Fourteen times All-Star, four times the most valuable player and three James had what could be considered his best season last year, averaging 27.5 points, 8, 6 rebounds and 9.1 badists per game leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to their fourth consecutive appearance in the NBA. finals. Unfortunately, everything around him was wrong. The lineup was incomplete after Kyrie Irving's match and a mid-season reshuffle failed to fix it. James often felt like a one-man show – never more than at the end of the first game of the finals when he watched helpless JR Smith dribbled Cleveland's chances of winning – and it became clear that a change of scenery was attractive even after he had ended the long drought of the professional championship of the city. In the end, Los Angeles was where he wanted to live.
The case: He signed a four-year contract worth $ 154 million.
Quote from James's Social Media Account: "Thank you Northeast Ohio for an amazing 4 seasons, it will always be home."
How it will go: There are far too many maneuvers to predict this, but with Paul George having resumed in Oklahoma City, building a list that can compete with the Golden State Warriors will be difficult.
An earlier version of this article gave a false indication of how George Mikan joined the Minneapolis Lakers. It was acquired by the team when another league was folded;
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