Los Angeles Lakers Sign Magic Johnson To 25 Year Deal

There are short contracts. There are long contracts. And then there's the contract Magic Johnson received on June 26, 1981.

After just two seasons, Magic Johnson was already considered one of the most talented players the NBA ever had. It was that level of skill that granted Magic the the most extensive deal in NBA history, as Jerry Buss handed Magic a 25-year, $25 million contract to stick around with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The deal began in 1984, would have ended in 2009, and gave the Lakers' guard one million per season. 

Johnson became just the third player to earn a million-dollar annual salary, joining fellow L.A. teammate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Houston Rockets forward Moses Malone.

Though he had been given largest contract in the history of professional sports, Johnson was a long way from being happy. Only five months later, the franchise player asked to be traded and subsequently forced Buss to fire head coach Paul Westhead.



With the hiring of Pat Riley in Westhead's place, Johnson remained with the Los Angeles Lakers and helped them win multiple titles over the course of the decade. But by the time his contract became active, it was no longer the lucrative mega-deal that it was when he signed it. Players of all sports were now making $2-3 million a year, and his 25-year deal was preventing him from raking in the cash. He later renegotiated his deal and resumed make top dollar like everyone else.

Pat Riley Gets Win 400

On March 9, 1988, Hall of Fame basketball coach and owner Pat Riley gets win number 400 while coaching. He was the fastest ever to 400, taking just 540 games to get to that mark, all of those wins came with the Los Angeles Lakers.

 

Pat Riley (center) coaching up the 1990 Los Angeles Lakers team.

Riley is widely regarded as one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time; Riley has served as the head coach of five championship teams and an assistant coach to another.

He was named NBA Coach of the Year three times (1989–90, 1992–93 and 1996–97, as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks and Heat, respectively). He was head coach of the NBA All-Star Game teams nine times: eight of the Western team (1982, 1983, 1985–1990, all as head coach of the Lakers) and once of the Eastern team (1993, as head coach of the Knicks). In 1996 he was named one of the 10 Greatest Coaches in the NBA history.

Pat Riley in 2007 with his Miami Heat NBA Finals ring.

Riley most recently won the 2012 NBA Championship with the Miami Heat as their team president. This made him the first (and so far only) NBA figure to win an NBA championship as a player, coach (both assistant and head), and executive. He received the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award from the NBA Coaches Association on June 20, 2012.

Riley would finish his career with 1210 wins and only 694 losses, earning 171 playoff victories and 111 losses.

Riley has won many championships in his career as a player and as a coach including being on the 1972 Los Angeles Lakers Championship team, winning the 1980 NBA Championships with the Los Angeles Lakers as an assistant coach before moving over to head coach where he won five NBA titles with the Lakers in 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988 and then 2006 with the Miami Heat.

Since 2006 Riley has stepped over to the front office with the Miami Heat, and has tacked on two more NBA Finals championships behind his name with the team winning back-to-back championships in 2012 and 2013.

Chamberlain Breaks NBA Scoring Record

On Feb. 14, 1966, Wilt Chamberlain breaks NBA career scoring record at 20,884 points, which was previously held by Bob Petit, who played on the Milwaukee and St. Louis Hawks. Chamberlain’s record breaking score came on the way to earning his second MVP award during his first full season on the Philadelphia 76ers.

During the 1965-1966 season Chamberlain averaged 33.5 points and 24.6 rebounds a game, leading the league in both categories. The totals were his sixth highest scoring season of his career as well his third highest rebounding season.

Chamberlain would go on to finish his career with 31,419 points, as he led the NBA in scoring seven times, field goal percentage nine times, minutes played eight times, rebounding eleven times, and assists once.

Despite being such a great scorer, Chamberlain's main weakness was his notoriously poor free throw shooting, where he has the third lowest career free throw percentage in NBA history with 51.1% (based on a minimum of 1,200 attempts). Chamberlain claimed that he intentionally missed free throws so a teammate could get the rebound and score two points instead of one, but later acknowledged that he was a "psycho case" in this matter.

He committed surprisingly few fouls during his NBA career, despite the rugged play in the post. Chamberlain never fouled out of a regular season or playoff game in his 14-year NBA career. His career average was only 2 fouls per game, despite having averaged 45.8 minutes per game over his career. He had 5 seasons where he committed less than 2 fouls per game, with a career low of 1.5 fouls during the 1962 season, in which he also averaged 50.4 points per game. His fouls per 36 minutes (a stat used to compare players that average vastly different minutes) was a remarkable 1.6 per game.

Chamberlain was also responsible for several rule changes, including widening the lane from 12 to 16 feet, as well as changes to rules regarding inbounding the ball and shooting free throws.

Chamberlain is most remembered however for his 100-point game, which is widely considered the greatest basketball record of all-time. He is also only one of two basketball players, the other being Michael Jordan to have averaged at least 30 points per game over their entire career, but Chamberlain is the only player to average over 50 points a game for an entire season.

For his feats, Chamberlain was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, ranked no. 2 in SLAM Magazine's Top 50 NBA Players of All-Time and no. 13 in the ESPN list "Top North American athletes of the century" and voted the second best center of All-Time by ESPN behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on March 6, 2007.

Chamberlain’s record would hold up for over 15 years until Kareem Abdul-Jabar would break his record. After Abdul-Jabar broke Chamberlain’s record, Karl Malone and Michael Jordan have also surpassed his numbers, out ranking Chamberlain to fourth as they are second and third respectively behind Abdul-Jabar who is still the NBA’s All-Time leading scorer with 38,387 points.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Sets Scoring Record

On Feb. 5, 1989, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar becomes first NBA player to score 38,000 points.

Since Abdul-Jabar scored 38,000 points only one other player, Karl Malone has come close to scoring as many points. However, Malone retired with the second most points all-time 36,928.

Kobe Bryant is the current active leader in points scored with 31,700. It would take Bryant another five years minimum to reach Jabar’s record.

He is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points. During his career with the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers from 1969 to 1989, Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and a record six regular season MVP Awards.

In college at UCLA, he played on three consecutive national championship teams, and his high school team won 71 consecutive games.

At the time of his retirement, Abdul-Jabbar was the NBA’s all-time leader in points scored, games played, minutes played, field goals made, field goal attempts, blocked shots, defensive rebounds, and personal fouls.

Abdul-Jabbar also has been an actor, a basketball coach, and an author. In 2012, he was selected as a U.S. cultural ambassador.

UCLA Men's Basketball Sets Record

On Jan. 27, 1973, John Wooden and his UCLA Bruins men's basketball team broke the consecutive victories record in NCAA basketball Jan. 27, 1973.

Their 61st consecutive win was an 82-63 win over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame figured prominently into the eventual 88-game winning streak of the Bruins. Notre Dame was the last team to beat UCLA as the streak started.

They were also the next team to defeat Wooden's squad to end the streak at 88 games.

The 88 game win streak was the longest in history in any major North American professional sport or collegiate sport.

He would also coach four undefeated teams in 1964, 1967, 1972 and 1973. The 1972-1973 teams continued their unbeaten streak into 1974, which was 88 game win streak team.

John Wooden, nicknamed the "Wizard of Westwood", won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period—seven in a row  – as head coach at UCLA, an unprecedented feat.

Within this period, his teams won a record 88 consecutive games. Wooden was named national coach of the year six times.

Wooden would win 664 games in his career as a head coach and only lose 162, to have a winning percentage of .802 (just over 80 percent).

As a player, Wooden was the first to be named basketball All-American three times and he won a national championship at Purdue. Wooden was named a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player (inducted in 1961) and as a coach (in 1973), the first person ever enshrined in both categories.

Only Lenny Wilkens and Bill Sharman have since had the same honor.

He was one of the most revered coaches and was beloved by his former players, among them Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton.

Wooden was renowned for his short, simple inspirational messages to his players, including his "Pyramid of Success". These often were directed at how to be a success in life as well as in basketball.

In 2006 Wooden was part of the founding class for the College Basketball Hall of Fame, which is located in Kansas City, Mo.

Bryant Puts Up 81 On Raptors

On Jan. 22, 2006, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers scored 81 points in a single game. 

It is the second highest total in history behind only Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point effort. Bryant's effort came in a 122-104 win over the Toronto Raptors.

The Lakers were trailing by double digits in the third quarter when Bryant really started to turn it on. He had a total of 55 points in the second half to help the Lakers win.

Bryant has put together a tremendous career becoming the youngest player in league history to score 30,000 career points and is the all-time leading scorer in Lakers franchise history. He currently ranks third and fourth on the league's all-time post-season scoring and all-time regular season scoring lists.

At one point it looked like Bryant would be a shoe in to take over the post-season scoring title, but with his injuries over the past two seasons and the Lakers failure to post a respectable win-loss record he might end up where he is currently.

Since his second year in the league, Bryant has been selected to start every All-Star Game. He has won the All-Star MVP Award four times (2002, 2007, 2009, and 2011), tying him for the most All-Star MVP Awards in NBA history.

At the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics, he won gold medals as a member of the USA national team. Sporting News and TNT named Bryant the top NBA player of the 2000s.

The Mail Man's Streak Begins

On Dec. 18, 1991, former Utah Jazz great and Hall of Famer, Karl Malone also know as the “Mail Man” started a streak of 575 games scoring in double figures.

His streak would be the third longest in NBA history only behind Michael Jordan (840) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (787).

Malone would go on to finish his career as the second player on the All-Time scoring leader board for the NBA, only behind Abdul-Jabbar.

He would finish his career with 36,928 points in 1,476 games marking an average of 25 points per game.

During his career with the Jazz and Lakers, Malone would earn two MVP awards in 1997 and 1999 with the Jazz; he would be named to 14 NBA All-Star games, where he was named the MVP of the All-Star game twice.

He would also be named an 11-time All-NBA First Team player; two-time All-NBA Second Team player, one time All-NBA Third Team player. He would also earn defensive awards, being named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team three times from 1997-1999, the NBA All-Defensive Second Team once, and the NBA All-Rookie Team.

In 1996, Malone would be named to the NBA’s 50^th Anniversary All-Time Team.

In 2006, the Utah Jazz would retire Malone’s no. 32 jersey.

Malone would also help the United States to two gold medals in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and 1996 Atlanta Olympics as part of the Dream Team and Dream Team II.

Bryant, Jamison Score 50

On Dec. 6, 2000, Antawn Jamison of the Golden State Warriors and Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers each score 51 points in the game. It marked only the third time in NBA history that opposing players have scored at least 50 in a game. The previous time that happened was 38 years ago when Wilt Chamberlain scored 63 points and Elgin Baylor scored 50-points as the Bucks and Lakers played.

Jamison also scored 51 points in the game prior to the one he and Bryant both scored over 50.

While Antawn Jamison has gone on to be a NBA journeyman, Kobe Bryant has lit up the record books. Currently he is ranked fourth all-time in the NBA, with 31, 617 points. Bryant joins just four other players to score over 31,000 points in the NBA as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Michael Jordan are above him, and Wilt Chamberlain is behind him.

With Bryant on the comeback trail right now, he could possibly pass Jordan this year to take sole possession of third place in the NBA’s All-Time scoring leader list.

Abdul-Jabbar's Streak Breaks

On Dec. 4, 1987,  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar does not score in double figures ending his streak of 787 games doing so.

Abdul-Jabbar is one of the best to play in the NBA, he is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points, an average of 24.6 points per game, and also bright in 17,440 rebounds, an average of 11.2 rebounds per game, and had 3,189 blocks in his career, an average of 2.5 blocks per game.

During his career with the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers from 1969 to 1989, Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and a record six regular season MVP Awards.

On top of those feats Abdul-Jabbar was also named the 1970 Rookie of the Year and was named to the NBA All-Rookie team that year. He won two NBA Finals MVP’s in 1971 an 1985. He was named an NBA All-Star 19 times, from 1970-1977, and 1979-1989. He was named to the All-NBA First Team 10 times, and five times to the All-NBA Second Team. He was a two-time NBA scoring champion in 1971 and 1972. Was the NBA leading rebounder in 1976.

But it wasn’t just his offense that made Abdul-Jabbar special, it was his defense too. He was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team five times, and the NBA All-Defensive Second Team six times. He was the NBA’s block leader four-times during his career.

After he retired from the NBA Abdul-Jabbar no. 33 jersey was retired by the Los Angeles Lakers and the Milwaukee Bucks.

In 1996, he was named to the NBA’s 50^th Anniversary All-Time Team.

Abdul-Jabbar was also well known for his trademark "sky-hook", a hook shot in which he bent his entire body (rather than just the arm) like a straw in one fluid motion to raise the ball and then release it at the highest point of his arm's arching motion. Combined with his long arms and great height (7 feet 2 inches), the sky hook was difficult for a defender to block without goaltending. It was a reliable and feared offensive weapon and contributed to his high lifetime field goal percentage of .559. As a twist, he was adept at shooting the skyhook with either hand, which made him even more difficult to defend against. According to Abdul-Jabbar, he learned the move in fifth grade after practicing with the Mikan Drill and soon learned to value it, as it was "the only shot I could use that didn't get smashed back in my face".