Perhaps it was the release of HBOโs Winning Time, Huluโs Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers, as well as Apple TV+โs They Call Me Magic this yearโฆ Perhaps it was because itโs the 75th anniversary of the Los Angeles Lakers (and theyโre tired of watching the franchise lose)โฆ Or perhaps the guys just thought it was about time they got the band back together. Whatever the case, the original โShowtime Lakersโ of the 1980s recently assembled for a reunion practice in Hawaii and it was bloody spectacular.
You simply cannot tell the story of the NBA without mentioning this team. Walking away with five titles from eight trips to the NBA Finals, theyโre one of the greatest and most beloved dynasties in basketball history. Known for playing the game at breakneck speed and earning every the style point the 80s had to offer, few can honestly claim to rival them.
Granted, as the footage below clearly demonstrates, itโs been a fair few years. Iconic head coach Pat Riley โ who was also in attendance for the Showtime reunion โ was known to work these players ridiculously hard during their practices back in the day, but this latest session was said to be more of a โwalk aroundโ featuring their most iconic plays.
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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Byron Scott, Michael Cooper, Kurt Rambis, and all of their teammates from the era were in attendance for the reunion of the Showtime Lakers; and all donning specially designed white T-shirts with a gold Larry OโBrien trophy inside a purple basketball imprinted on the front, along with the cohortโs championship years.
The players can still be heard affectionately referring to a 75-year-old Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as โCaptainโ and it looks like the same number of people can guard the NBA all-time leading scorerโs skyhook from back in the day, i.e. absolutely none.
From watching Kareem โ who seems to have replaced the goggles with a backwards hat โ run give-and-go plays with James Worthy, to seeing Magic dish out assists and yell out โYou know I can play this game,โ itโs hard not to smile seeing the lads back in action.
Above all else, itโs just really special to see these legends hanging out together after all this time. It makes you think about how fast the years have gone by and puts into perspective the very thing that was always more important than winning at the end of the day. You consider the tragedy of losing another Lakers icon in Kobe Bryant, who weโll unfortunately never get to see grow old, and remember to really cherish the present. As Abdul-Jabbar wrote in a wonderful tribute to Bryant:
โThe goal is to strive to reach oneโs fullest potential โ and sometimes push beyond what even they imagined that potential might be. Winning is not the goal, itโs a happy by-product.โ
Check out the old fellas in action below.
