In 1960, the Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles, and although interest in the team was scant at first, those who cared dreamed of an NBA championship coming to the City of Angels.
With young superstars Elgin Baylor and Jerry West, the Lakers made their way into the 1962 NBA Finals versus the mighty Boston Celtics.
The Celtics were the league’s reigning dynasty, having won three straight titles and four of the last five. They boasted defensive dynamo center Bill Russell, perhaps the greatest rebounder and shot-blocker ever, plus several other Hall of Famers.
The Lakers had been swept by Boston in the 1959 finals, but this matchup went down to the wire while setting a precedent for the sport’s greatest rivalry.
L.A. took a 2-1 series lead when West made the game-winning layup at the buzzer of Game 3. Then in Game 5, Baylor set a finals record that stands to this day with 61 points in another Lakers win.
They were unable to conclude matters in Game 6 in L.A., so the two teams faced off in Game 7 at the Boston Garden to decide the 1962 NBA championship.
Baylor had 41 points and 22 rebounds, while West put up 35 points. The game went down to the final possession of regulation, but neither of L.A.’s two superstars took the final shot.
Instead, it was guard Frank Selvy, who went 2-of-10 on the day, who missed the shot that would’ve won it all for the Lakers.
In overtime, the Celtics outlasted the Lakers for their fourth straight title, 110-107, behind Russell’s 30 points and 40 rebounds.
In the years to come, the Lakers lost three more Game 7s to the Celtics, with each coming down to the wire, just as it did in ’62.
The most painful of those losses came in 1969 when Wilt Chamberlain became a Laker, yet the team still lost by two to the Celtics at The Forum in Russell’s final game.
Eventually, the Lakers gained their revenge, when Kobe Bryant powered them to an 83-79 victory in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals over Boston.
At last, their decades-old demons had been exorcised.
