From 17-65 to 2020 NBA Champs: Don't Forget How Far LA Lakers Had to Come

After wiping out the Miami Heat 106-93 on Sunday, the Los Angeles Lakers are once again atop the NBA, a position the franchise has been in on 16 previous occasions.

The 17th title run was led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The former secured his fourth Finals MVP trophy with averages of 29.8 points, 11.8 rebounds, 8.5 assists and 1.2 steals. The latter put up 25.0 points, 10.7 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in his first Finals.

Together, they make up one of the most talented duos ever assembled. LeBron is second in NBA history in career box plus/minus (which, per Basketball Reference, "estimates a basketball player's contribution to the team when that player is on the court."). AD is 12th. LeBron is arguably the greatest point forward of all time. Davis is on track to be an all-time great big.

Even with James at 35 and heading into his 18th season, it looks like this combination will have the Lakers at or near the top of the league for the next few years. It's a time for jubilation for Lakers fans, but those who predated LeBron's arrival won't soon forget the seasons that brought L.A. to this point.

Before 2019-20, the Lakers' last winning campaign came in 2012-13. In the six combined seasons between that one and this one, L.A.'s 33.1 winning percentage was tied with the New York Knicks for dead last.

For one of the proudest organizations in the NBA (perhaps the proudest, depending on how many Boston Celtics fans you're around), it was a level of losing that felt alien.

The team's top five in minutes played during those six seasons consisted of Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle, Brandon Ingram, Nick Young and Kyle Kuzma. Ryan Kelly, Jodie Meeks, Robert Sacre and Jeremy Lin are all in the top 20.

This is about as striking an example of the "if you didn't love me at my worst" meme you'll find in sports.

You'll have to excuse any Lakers fans dropping it for the next few days.

If you didn't love them through this...

Well, you know the rest.

At their lowest, the 2015-16 season, the Lakers went 17-65 in Kobe Bryant's final injury-plagued campaign. With the face of the previous era retiring, there appeared to be little hope of contending in the near future.

A pair of lottery picks, D'Angelo Russell and Randle, were on the roster, but it took a special brand of optimism to see Lakers-level basketball under their stewardship.

To get from there to here, that optimism needed to be converted to patience. A few years without contending is the norm for most franchises. For L.A., it felt like eons punctuated with plenty of drama.

The six years outside the playoff picture included an intrafamily ownership squabble that ended with Jeanie Buss seizing control from her brothers. There were three coaches, Mike D'Antoni, Byron Scott and Luke Walton, who all got a crack at running the show. The front office experienced multiple shake-ups, too, from Mitch Kupchak to Magic "I'm not gonna be here" Johnson to Rob Pelinka.

Say what you will about the chaos, it eventually got the Lakers to this point. Well, that and a nearly unrivaled history that made LeBron's signing a foregone conclusion. Transactional jackpots aside, all the losing did give L.A. a pair of No. 2 picks that turned into Ingram and Lonzo Ball. They in turn became the centerpieces of the trade that landed AD.

You can't deny that the location and franchise leaderboards that include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant help, but they also deserve a hint of credit for a Philadelphia 76ers-like process (even if it wasn't quite as intentional and much messier).

However it happened, shifting from Sacre and Kelly to LeBron, AD and a championship in just over a half-decade is, at the very least, respectable.

And in a year that began with the loss of Bryant, it almost feels like destiny.

Shortly after Kobe's January death, LeBron took to Instagram and all but vowed to return their shared franchise to glory.

"I promise you I'll continue your legacy man," he wrote. "You mean so much to us all here especially LakerNation and it's my responsibility to put this s--t on my back and keep it going!!"

Even at 35, that's exactly what LeBron did.

He just wrapped up what is, by far, the most productive postseason ever for a player his age or older, according to value over replacement player, per Stathead Basketball.

Knowing they could always add a player like this helped Lakers fans maintain their sanity through six years of wildly uncharacteristic losing. And that knowledge rested on a foundation built by legends like Kareem, Magic, Shaq, Kobe and, of course, Robert Sacre.

Someone had to be the face of that era of Lakers basketball.