Magic Johnson To Coach Los Angeles Lakers

On March 22, 1994, the Los Angeles Lakers announce that Magic Johnson will replace head coach Randy Pfund, who was fired after compiling a 66-80 record in less than two seasons. Johnson, only 34, had retired in 1991 when he learned he was HIV-positive.

Los Angeles Lakers great Magic Johnson (right) talking with James Worthy (left) after he was appointed to the head coaching position during the 1993-1994 season.

Johnson discovered immediately that coaching wasn’t in his heart. Things got off to a solid start, as the Lakers won five of their fist six games under their new coach. But the Lakers closed out the season with 10 consecutive losses, the longest losing streak in franchise history, finishing the season with a 33-49 record – missing the playoffs for the first time since 1976.

Not even a month after taking the job, Johnson announced in the middle of April that he wouldn’t be returning for the 1994-1995 season.

Magic’s brief coaching stint ended with a 5-11 record, however, Johnson became a part owner of the Lakers that summer.

Los Angeles Declares March 5, "Derek Fisher Day"

 On March 5, 2008, the city of Los Angeles declared it “Derek Fisher Day” in praise of his work in the community, his love of his family and his commitment to his teammates.  Fisher was honored downtown at a City Hall ceremony where he gave a speech and was presented with a scroll.

Derek Fisher with the NBA Finals trophy after the Los Angeles Lakers won the title in 2010.

A perfect example of Derek’s devotion to his family and his dedication to his teammates came in 2007 when he announced his daughter had a rare form of eye cancer.  Fisher would be by his daughter’s side in New York while she underwent surgery and then later that day would fly to Salt Lake City to play in his Utah Jazz’s Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinal against the Golden State Warriors.

Derek would arrive to the game late in the third quarter to a standing ovation.  He would help send the game into overtime and would hit a late three-pointer to seal the victory for the Jazz, giving them a 2-0 series lead.

Fisher has enjoyed a great career in the NBA including winning five NBA Championships from 2000-2002 with the Los Angeles Lakers, and 2009-2010 with the Lakers again. He was also the NBA Shooting Stats champion in 2004.

Currently Fisher is playing with the Oklahoma City Thunder, his second stint with the team after playing with them for a short period in 2012.

Michael Jordan Sets Chicago Bulls Scoring Record

On Feb. 26, 1987, Michael Jordan's 58 points sets a new Chicago Bulls record for most points in a single game. While not his highest point total of his career for a single game, as he scored in the 60’s multiple times, including a 69-point game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1990.

Chicago Bulls shooting guard Michael Jordan in the 1987 NBA Dunk Contest.

This was however a highlight in Jordan’s career, which had many including winning six NBA Championships, being named the NBA Finals MVP all six times. He would win the regular seasons MVP five times, be named an All-Star 14-times, being named the MVP of the All-Star game three times. He was a 10 times NBA scoring champion, and three time NBA steals champion, being named to the All-NBA First team 10 times, NBA All-Defensive First team nine times and All-NBA Second team once. He was nominated to the NBA All-Rookie First Team and won the NBA Slam Dunk contest in back-to-back years in 1987 and 1988.

In 1988, Jordan was honored with the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year Award and became the first NBA player to win both the Defensive Player of the Year and MVP awards in a career (since equaled by Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, and Kevin Garnett; Olajuwon is the only player other than Jordan to win both during the same season).

In addition he set both seasonal and career records for blocked shots by a guard, and combined this with his ball-thieving ability to become a standout defensive player.

He ranks third in NBA history in total steals with 2,514, trailing John Stockton and Jason Kidd.

Jordan finished his career with 32,292 points, 6,672 rebounds and 5,633 assists.

The NBA selected Jordan to the NBA’s 50 Anniversary All-Time Team, and his no. 23 jersey was retired by the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat. Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year – 1991 Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996 Ranked No.1 by SLAM Magazine's Top 50 Players of All-Time

In International play Jordan earned two Gold Medals with the “Dream Team” in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He also won Gold on United State’s team in the 1992 FIBA Americas Championship and the 1983 Pan American Games.

In a 1999 ESPN poll, Jordan was ranked the greatest U.S. athlete of the Century.

Jordan is one of the most marketed sports figures in history. He has been a major spokesman for such brands as Nike, Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, Gatorade, McDonald's, Ball Park Franks, Rayovac, Wheaties, Hanes, and MCI. Jordan has had a long relationship with Gatorade, appearing in over 20 commercials for the company since 1991, including the "Like Mike" commercials in which children wishing to be like Jordan sang a song.

Jordan’s legacy went outside of basketball as Nike created a signature shoe for him, called the Air Jordan.

One of Jordan's more popular commercials for the shoe involved Spike Lee playing the part of Mars Blackmon. In the commercials Lee, as Blackmon, attempted to find the source of Jordan's abilities and became convinced that "it's gotta be the shoes.

The hype and demand for the shoes even brought on a spate of "shoe-jackings" where people were robbed of their sneakers at gunpoint. Subsequently Nike spun off the Jordan line into its own division named the "Jordan Brand". The company features an impressive list of athletes and celebrities as endorsers. The brand has also sponsored college sports programs such as those of North Carolina, Cincinnati, Cal, St. John's, Georgetown, and North Carolina A&T.

Jordan also has been associated with the Looney Tunes cartoon characters.

A Nike commercial shown during the 1993 Super Bowl XXVII featured Jordan and Bugs Bunny playing basketball against a group of Martian characters. The Super Bowl commercial inspired the 1996 live action/animated movie Space Jam, which starred Jordan and Bugs in a fictional story set during his first retirement. They have subsequently appeared together in several commercials for MCI.

In June 2010, Jordan was ranked by Forbes Magazine as the 20th most powerful celebrity in the world with $55 million earned between June 2009 and June 2010. According to the Forbes article, Jordan Brand generates $1 billion in sales for Nike.

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.

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.

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.