I'm with DOS.
If the Celtics moved to Foxborough and became the New England Celtics, should they give up their titles?
I'd agree typically, but the Lakers didn't even acknowledge the Minny championships until they realized it artificially brought them closer to the Celtics in the 90s. You don't get a "do over" on that decision, imo. There are plenty of pictures and shirts out there with the "race for 5" in the 80s, and it wasn't just for that current dynasty. It was for the totality of their championships. Sometime in the 90s when the Lakers got Shaq and Kobe, they started to finally acknowledge the Minny chips. If you take a look at the championship rings from the 80s, the Lakers typically only had a tally for the LA wins.
The whole concept of the Minneapolis dynasty's legitimacy within the Lakers organization is a farce. The Lakers went about 47 years before they considered legit those 5 titles from Minny and they finally decided to include them to their LA banners in 2002 during the regular season and ironically against the Minnesota Timberwolves. In that game they "honored" the Minneapolis rings and players by placing that dynasty's # of championship wins plus the name of the players in separate banners. They never bothered to retire any of those players' numbers, not even their great George Mikan, Mr. Basketball. I think why they included them was because at the time they acknowledged them the Shaq and Kobe duo were fresh off back to back title wins and were going for the 3-peat (which they achieved, WCF game 6 Vs. Kings notwithstanding). It was a shady move nonetheless but I guess they thought Kobe and Shaq were gonna dominate and win enough rings that by including the Minny rings they would be able to plant themselves as the best franchise. At the end of the day many question the legitimacy of those titles and we Celtics fans usually pout about it because they're one away from tying and two away from surpassing us. Losing Reggie Lewis and Len Bias, plus bad ownership allowed the Lakers to inch closer to us. However, nobody should lose sleep over the Lakers getting more rings than us because for starters they're pathetic in the NBA Finals. They have 16 championship wins but have lost literally as much as they've won (15 losses overall). Their Minneapolis Finals record actually masks the Lakers' Finals record as the LA team, and that is 11 wins and 14 losses. That's laughable and something I utilize to crush Laker fans. They're bragging rights as a superior franchise is fairly limited if you know how to shut them up with facts. Laker fans usually resort to recent success as their ground for claiming superiority over us, such as the fact that they've won more rings in the last 30 years than us, have repeated and 3-peated, how they've done it with a full 30 team roster in the league and how we won our majority of rings when the league was a mere 8 team squad. Most of it is true but those bragging rights get smashed if you point out things like:
1) Excuse 1- The Celtics won rings in weak era with only 8 teams, Bill Russell is overrated blah blah (The Lakers was one of those 8 teams and 7 of the 11 Celtics' titles came at the expense of us stomping them in the Finals. They were also beneficiaries of that supposed 'weak' era, and their Finals losses against us is proof. It's a shame Bill Russell alone in 13 years won the same number of rings as the Lakers' total championships since moving to LA. Bill Russell's banners are enough to cover the Lakers' LA titles LOL!)
2) Excuse 2- We've recently won more championships than you therefore we're better (The Miami Heat recently won championships of their own, does their 3 banners make them historically better? We could easily dispel championships won by a team by bringing advantageous timelines as an excuse. I could say that the Bulls are lesser than the Spurs because they've won more rings recently even though they have less championships. See how dumb that argument is?)
3) Excuse 3- The Celtics have won one title in two decades (and you guys have spent over 5 decades trailing. There isn't a repeat nor 3-peat that's made you surpass us. And to boot, Lakers have gone to the NBA Finals 31 times over our 21 times, how do you not capitalize on those opportunities?)
In conclusion, let them claim those rings, we're still up by one (theoretically by five, but whatever).
Topic: L.A Lakers 16 championship farce (Read 11395 times)