When people debate what was the greatest team in NBA history, at least one edition of the Los Angeles Lakers inevitably comes up. The mid-1980s squads led by Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are the candidate most often mentioned, with the 1972 team also getting some consideration.
The Lakers of the early 2000s won three straight NBA championships, and in 2001 they went 15-1 through the playoffs and didn’t lose a single game for over two calendar months. However, that iteration doesn’t get much love in this debate.
Tyronn Lue, the Los Angeles Clippers head coach who was a member of that 2001 team, said it was the greatest the league has ever seen while on the “All The Smoke” podcast.
Via Lakers Nation:
“Yea, the greatest of all time for sure. Nobody could beat that team.”
Lue’s reasoning was the difficulties presented by the dynamic duo of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.
“I’m just basing it off of Shaq and Kob. People talk, you know Draymond [Green] go crazy. See the problem is, what they don’t understand is Shaq. You can double team, guard, SHAQ! Forget everything else like how are y’all gonna guard Shaq. That’s the biggest thing because now you’re in the bonus with six minutes to go in the quarter. Now Kobe gets loose you can’t touch him, now he’s going to the free throw line. So how are you gonna guard Shaq, that’s what people don’t understand. That was the greatest team of all time to me, for sure. Any Kobe and Shaq team I don’t see how you can beat that team.”
There may have been better NBA teams than the 2001 Lakers, but most of them didn’t win three straight titles.
