L.A. Lakers Centers vs. Guards: Who Deserves More Credit for Recent NBA Titles?
The one constant in all of the Los Angeles Lakers NBA Championships since 1971 has been the presence of a great center and superior perimeter players.
From Jerry West, Gail Goodrich and Wilt Chamberlain to Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and more recently Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and Pau Gasol. The Lakers franchise has persevered and thrived based on the same post-perimeter theory.
It's easy to say that the unique blend of great guards and dominant centers is the reason for the Lakers' championship success, but if you were forced to choose the main catalyst for the Lakers' continued relevance who would you choose?
The Lakers' first championship team since leaving Minnesota was the 1971-72 team which featured West and Goodrich on the perimeter and Chamberlain in the post.
To be fair, Chamberlain was mostly a decoy as he only averaged 13.6 points per game that season, while West and Goodrich combined to average more than 50 points per game.
Still the Lakers managed to reach consecutive NBA Finals with an aging Chamberlain in the paint, and while West and Goodrich were the driving forces behind the team's lone title Chamberlain certainly forced opponents to respect the team's post game.
The '80s era Showtime Lakers are arguably the greatest NBA team ever assembled and they were led by Magic and Kareem, who are generally considered to be two of the best to ever play their positions.
The Showtime Lakers won five titles between 1980 and 1988, and while equal credit is usually distributed to both Magic and Kareem, Magic probably deserves a little more recognition because he is simply the greatest point guard to ever grace an NBA court.
That's not to say that Kareem is not a legendary player, but there are other centers he can be legitimately compared to while Magic resided in a class all of his own.
One of the more impressive aspects of Magic's game was his versatility, which was on full display during his rookie season in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, when he was forced to man the center position because of an injury to Kareem, and he responded in historic fashion.
Magic recorded 42 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists while playing center, guard and forward and led the Lakers to a series-clinching 123-107 victory. Magic also became the first rookie to ever earn the NBA Finals MVP award in the process.
There are people who still talk about that game as if it were yesterday, and it stands as one of the more remarkable postseason performances in league history.
Phil Jackson brought a new scheme and philosophy to Los Angeles during his tenure, but it was still based on a dominant presence in the post and on the perimeter, and it produced nearly the same results as Pat Riley's fabled Showtime teams.
Jackson won three titles in his first stint with the Lakers as Shaquille O'Neal was the center of attention in the paint and Kobe Bryant controlled the perimeter.
The star-crossed relationship between Bryant and O'Neal remains a point of tension among some Lakers fans who feel Shaq receives to much credit for the team's success, and Bryant doesn't receive nearly enough or vice versa.
One thing is for sure: Jackson's 2000-02 championship teams were built around the dominance of Shaq in the post and while Bryant was much more than a casual spectator, Shaq was still the team's primary offensive option.
Sidekick may not be an appropriate term for Bryant since he did average more than 25 points per game in the postseason during the Lakers' three-peat, but in terms of perceived importance Bryant was clearly No. 2.
However, during Jackson's encore voyage with the Lakers, Bryant was without question the team's alpha male, and when general manager Mitch Kupchak acquired Pau Gasol in early 2008 the Lakers' title pursuit was renewed.
Gasol may not have been as individually dominant as O'Neal or Kareem before him, but he has a skill set that was more diverse, and Gasol blended almost seamlessly with Bryant from the moment he arrived in Los Angeles.
The marriage of Bryant and Gasol added up to three finals trips and two more championships for the Lakers, and the franchise will lean heavily on the duo once again if they hope to return to the finals in 2012.
The 2011-12 Lakers must still add pieces to the puzzle in order to be a legitimate title contender, but as recent history has shown, the battle may already be half won because the primary parts are already in place.
