John Hollinger of ESPN has come up with a ranking of all thirty NBA franchises and evaluates all of them based on their performances thus far. The franchise that came out as #1? The Los Angeles Lakers.
According to Hollinger:
Magic. Kareem. The Logo. Kobe. Shaq. When it comes to superstars, the Lakers are so far out in front of everybody else it's not even funny -- their all-time starting five would crush any other team's; in fact, it might be better than that of the rest of the league's put together. So star-studded is their legacy that I left Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor and George Mikan off my five-man team that opened this paragraph, also neglecting the likes of James Worthy, Bob McAdoo and Gail Goodrich.I am in complete agreement with Hollinger here-- the Lakers are by far the best franchise in NBA history. The Lakers may trail the Boston Celtics in terms of championship banners, but that gap may be closed sooner than most people think. The Lakers have demonstrated several championship runs in all decades (The Lakers did reach the NBA finals in eight times in the 1960's but failed in all tries.) and they are closing the first decade of the 2000's with another championship run.
And those big names won, too. Although the Celtics have more championships, the Lakers have more of everything else -- wins, playoff wins, playoff series wins and conference titles...
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