Los Angeles Lakers: Why Are They Always so Good?

A great deal of baseball fans despise the New York Yankees because they basically buy championships.

Lots of college hoops fans can't stand Duke because coach Mike Krzyzewski grabs a big-time McDonald's All-American every year.

Then there's the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers, who not only have won plenty of titles, but rarely even have a down year. In fact, over their 63 years of existence, the Lakers have only missed the postseason five times. 

So why are the Lakers competitive 99 percent of the time? Well, one reason is that they always find a way to get their hands on a superstar.

George Mikan, the NBA's first dominant big man, joined the Lakers in the late 1940s, back when the team was located in frigid Minneapolis. The Hall of Fame center would go on to lead the squad to an astounding five titles in six years. 

Mikan retired following the 1955-56 season, but Laker fans wouldn't have to wait too long for another star to come to town. The team selected Seattle University forward Elgin Baylor with the first overall pick in the 1958 NBA draft.

Baylor would blossom into one of the most dangerous scorers in league history and later formed a dynamic duo with Jerry West, who the Lakers drafted second overall in 1960.

The team moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles shortly after West joined the club. The West-Baylor combo would carry the Lakers to the NBA Finals several times, though the team continued to come up short in their chase for a title.

In 1972, the Lakers were finally able to win their first championship since relocating to Los Angeles, thanks to a 1968 trade that brought in megastar Wilt Chamberlain.

In order to acquire Chamberlain, who some feel is the greatest player of ever, all the Lakers had to give up was Jerry Chambers, Archie Clark and Darrall Imhoff, making it one of the most- lopsided deals in NBA history.

That however, wasn't the only lopsided deal that the team has managed to pull off over the years. They also traded Junior Bridgeman and others to acquire Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975 and then somehow turned Gail Goodrich into Earvin "Magic" Johnson later on.  

Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar, maybe the greatest duo not named Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, would lead the Lakers to a handful of titles in the 1980s.

Hall of Fame forward James Worthy, who also starred for Los Angeles in the '80s, was drafted by the Lakers No. 1 overall in 1982 as a the result of a trade that happened a couple years before.

In 1996, the Lakers were again back in the business of winning lopsided trades as they dealt Vlade Divac to the Charlotte Hornets for some teenager named Kobe Bryant.

The trade helped clear cap space for the team to sign free agent Shaquille O'Neal that summer as well. Together, O'Neal and Bryant would carry the Lakers to a mini-dynasty, capturing three consecutive titles from 2000-02.      

During the 2007-08 season, the Lakers picked up Memphis Grizzlies All-Star big man Pau Gasol in yet another lopsided deal. Gasol would fill in for the traded O'Neal and help Bryant and the Lakers win back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010.

Plenty of superstar players are a part of Laker history and so are a few legendary head coaches like John Kundla, Pat Riley and Phil Jackson.

Kundla guided the Minneapolis squad to the 1950s dynasty; Riley was with the team during the Magic and Kareem era and, of course, Jackson was on the sideline for the team's last five championships.     

While big-name players and coaches have contributed to the Lakers success, you can't forget the slew of role players who've helped out along the way like the Michael Coopers, Kurt Rambises, Robert Horrys and Derek Fishers of the world.

Bryant, the team's current franchise player, is starting to age a little bit, but that doesn't mean the Lakers are going to stop competing for championships anytime soon.

A younger superstar like Dwight Howard, Chris Paul or Deron Williams could become available and the Lakers have proven time and time again over the years that they make smart decisions.

That's just how it is.