In the modern era of the NBA, there has been lots of talk about so-called “super teams.” This talk started in earnest when LeBron James took his talents to the Miami Heat and brought Chris Bosh with him to team up with Dwyane Wade in 2010. For three seasons prior to that, the Boston Celtics had what some also consider a “super team” that consisted of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo, although none of them made their way to Boston via free agency.
If one wants to expand the definition of what could be considered a “super team,” the Los Angeles Lakers had the first one. Throughout the 1960s, they had guard Jerry West and forward Elgin Baylor, and in 1968, they traded for Wilt Chamberlain. That trio wasn’t extremely successful —the Lakers lost twice in the NBA Finals in their first two seasons with the three Hall of Famers, and they only won it all in 1972 after Baylor retired early that season.
Of course, years later, they won five world titles in the 1980s with a galaxy of stars and difference-makers. One of them was Michael Cooper, who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame last year.
In an interview with Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson, he said that those Lakers teams would be considered a “super team” by modern standards.
“I think that whole era in the 80’s we won,” Cooper said. “We went to the NBA Finals 9 times. People don’t understand that — from 1980 to 1991, we went to the Finals nine times. And we won it five times. And we went through a lot of tough, talented teams. You look at it for us, we had the Seattle Supersonics when they won the championship in ‘79. We dethroned them in 1980. You had George “Iceman” Gervin and the A-Train (Artis Gilmore), you had Portland the team that they had up there with Mychal Thompson and Clyde Drexler; you had the Utah Jazz with Karl Malone and John Stockton just to name a few, ok? Then you look at the East. You had Detroit. You had Boston. You had the Sixers (Philadelphia 76ers). You had Cleveland. You had Atlanta with Dominique [Wilkins] and the group that he had. So we went through some very good teams, you know? Fortunately, we only had to play one of the East teams one time for the championship but the things that we did and we were able to do throughout the 80’s, I would call us a super team for sure.”
Those Lakers teams were led by Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, both of whom are universally considered two of the five to 10 greatest players in basketball history. For most of the era, they also had forward James Worthy, a Hall of Famer who was named the finals MVP in 1988. Los Angeles also had Hall of Famers in forward Jamaal Wilkes and Bob McAdoo during the early-to-mid 1980s.
Cooper identified one big difference between his Lakers teams and James’ Heat squads.
“But I think the difference between our team and any other team — and the Miami team, I’m not saying that they weren’t a great team because LeBron and Wade and Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal) there that damn sure was a super team but, we RAN! And we ran consistently and we practiced to run so, we may have a lull of two or three minutes in the game but for 46 minutes, we’re gonna run you to death! [laughs] We’re gonna get up and down the floor, we’re gonna play defense — even though people don’t see us because when you talk about Showtime Lakers, you talk about Magic’s no-look passes, Worthy swooping to the hoop, a Coop-A-Loop, Kareem’s skyhook, Magic’s drive… but you didn’t see us as a defensive team but, we were a very VERY good defensive team and that’s why it enabled us to be in so many games as we did. But you know what? We were gonna run you. We were gonna push tempo. Magic was the best at this all the time. Even if you score, if you score we’re coming back at you and probably most of the time and I would say eight out 10 times, we were scoring in four seconds back at you. So we would always catch you off guard because not only were we going to run you and get back on defense but now we’re gonna get up on you and pressure you full court. And if you’re a running team, it’s gonna take its toll somewhere along the line and if you’re a walking team or a halfcourt team — with us scoring a quick 8-10 points that changes your style of play. You gotta run to get back in the game.”
In four seasons with Miami, James won two championships in 2012 and 2013. At times, especially during the 2012-13 campaign, Miami looked incredible, but most would consider the Showtime Lakers to be on another level entirely.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Michael Cooper on how Showtime Lakers of the 1980s were a ‘super team’
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
