African American contribute for NBA - Essay Example

The game that was once played dominantly by whites has seen roles reversing, with 75% of the NBA players being African American. The game is nowadays associated with the Black Americans culture, especially those in the lower classes insides cities of Americai. In regards to basketball and African Americans, one team is outstanding in both the contexts: Los Angeles Lakers. Lakers are basketball team playing in the professional category in the National Basketball Association.The Lakers are among the most successful NBA teams of all times, having bagged 16 championships in the league.

The recent win was in 2010. Currently, the Lakers are the second most richest NBA teams with close to 645 million US dollars. Nevertheless, the team did not begin from a smooth start. According to NBA and sports records, the current Lakers’ team was a purchase from the then poor performing Detroit Gems. After the purchase, the team adopted the name Lakers, an inspiration from Minnesota’s nickname “The Land of ten thousand Lakes”. The team relocated to Minneapolis in 1947. The Lakers won the NBL championship with great help from George Mikan.

This success ensured that the team jumped to the next level, Basketball association of America (BAA). In their first season of 1948-49, the Lakers won the BBA championship.This was great success as the team had transformed from having the worst record in NBL to become the best almost instantly after being sold to Morris Chalfen and Ben Bergerii. The team’s future was bright. The year 1947 saw the birth of NBA from a merger of BBA and NBL. The Lakers proved they were the true champions by winning five NBA championships in six years.

This was a record at the time. The achievements of the Los Angeles team were made possible by a rich component of talent at the team between 1949 to 1955. Hall of fame players for the Lakers included an all white list of George Mikan, Jim Polland, Clyde Lovellete, and Slater martin. Very few blacks were playing in the league at that time. Bob Williams was the first African American player for the Lakers, after signing a contract with the team in 1954. In 1960, the team further relocated to Los Angeles with a strong team comprising of two black star players: Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain, and two white players: Jerry West and Gail Goodrich.

Despite this excellent combination, the Lakers lost six finals to Boston Celtics in only eight years. The 1960-1970 decade was bad for the Lakers. Lakers losing streak prolonged until 1972 when Bill Sharman took over as the team’s head coach. Lakers still holds the NBA title for the longest winning streak with 33 consecutive wins during the 1971-72 seasonsiii. In the years after the success, another African American player came to dominate the team. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the team’s backbone for approximately seven seasons.

Abdul-Jabbar remains the all-time leading NBA scorer with an amazing 38,387 points. He won six consecutive titles for the Most Valuable Player of the NBA season. At the time of retirement, Abdul-Jabbar was still holding almost all the records; points scored, time played, defensive rebounds, games played, blocked shots, and even personal fouls. Despite these achievements, Lakers did not win an NBA championship until the arrival of Earvin Johnson, or “Magic” Johnson in 1979. Then a rookie player, Johnson was playing for Abdul-Jabbar after the latter was injured.

Johnson put up an MVP performance in the game against Philadelphia. Magic Johnson was an African American professional player, and together with Abdul-Jabbar, assisted the team to reach for eight NBA championship finals winning five in the 1980s decade. Magic Johnson won the coveted NBA’