Out of all the teams he has seen in his 83 years of life, Jerry West says the ‘Showtime Lakers’ belong right up there with the best. In a chat with Vince Carter on ‘Vince’s Places,’ the NBA legend looked back on the 80s era for the Purple and Gold and hailed them for how special they were in their time:
“I’ve always said, I think the Showtime Lakers were one of the best teams I’ve ever seen. They could win a game anywhere. My goodness, I don’t know how I could deal with all those guys.”
West ended his playing career before the height of the Showtime era, but he played a huge role in the success they achieved. As the GM of the organization, he literally built the dynasty.
With Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Pat Riley as the head coach, the Lakers won five Championships over a 12-year span and dominated their opponents in impressive ways.
Today, that team is regarded as one of the greatest ever assembled, and many still argue they’d beat any of the modern-day giants — yes, even the 2017 Warriors.
During a recent interview held by American Express, sitting alongside Miami Heat legend Pat Riley, Lakers legend Magic Johnson, when asked who would win between the two teams [80s Lakers vs 2017 Warriors], went on record to say that his Lakers of the 1980’s would not only beat these Warriors in a seven-game series, they would sweep them.
“We going win,” said Magic. “We would probably sweep them. They are just too small.”
While there is no telling how the 80s Lakers would stack up against today’s powerhouse teams, it’s impossible to overstate just how good that decade of basketball was for the Purple and Gold.
In a lot of ways, it defined the Lakers organization and set the stage for how they’d be perceived in the future. With so much talent, star power, and swagger, the ‘Showtime’ Lakers can only be described as the epitome of Championship basketball.
