The Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980s personified the flamboyance and excess of the decade over which they reigned. Beginning with the arrival of Earvin 'Magic' Johnson in 1979, the Lakers played basketball with gusto and pizzazz, unleashing their famed 'Showtime' run-and-gun style on a league unprepared for their speed and ferocity. Between 1980 and 1991, the Lakers played in an unmatched nine NBA championship series, capturing five of them.
"The Showtime Lakers werent just the best team of their era. They were also the most compelling, the most charismatic, the most complex. The Lakers of Kareem, Magic, and Riley were to the 1980s what the Yankees of Mantle, Ford, and Stengel were to the 1950s: a team perfectly matched to its time, and place. Jeff Pearlman, typically, delivers the goods, celebrating them for their achievements, pulli
Jeremy Schaap, New York Times bestselling author of Cinderella Man
