Winnin' Times: The Magical Journey of the Los Angeles Lakers

Ostler and Springer, both Los Angeles Times staffers, relate the story of the Lakers from the team's earliest days in Minnesota to its success in L.A., touching on its flamboyant owner Jerry Buss, and the changes wrought by the arrival of Magic Johnson, who, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, became the team's second superstar. The Lakers, doing badly at the box office in Minneapolis, got permission to move because other club owners feared a new league would beat them to the West Coast. Sold to real-estate tycoon Buss, the team began to build an image as the glamor group of the NBA. Then came a championship won from the Philadelphia '76ers in 1980 and finally victory over the Boston Celtics in 1985. This entertaining, comprehensive volume also includes the accounts of a coach who thought he was hired as an assistant as well as a coach who was thought to have been fired because he displeased a star. Photos not seen by PW. (December 2)