You could practially just about any Laker squad that didn't win a championship during the 1980's /Magic Johnson era on this list but this team gets listed because after winning the 81-82 championship the Lakers became the first championship team in American team sports history to have the number one pick, because of a deal made with the Cleveland Cavaliers two years earlier where the Lakers sent forward Dan Ford for Cleveland's number one pick. The Lakers in turn selected James Worthy of North Carolina. The champions--with Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Kurt Rambis, Jamaal Wilkes, Magic Johnson and Norm Nixon as starters, along with Michael Cooper and Bob McAdoo off as reserves were back with the number one pick in the draft coming off the bench. Lyle Spencer, an outstanding sports columnist for the New York Post and the Riverside Press Enterprise calls this the greatest NBA squad he ever saw. The club brought James Worthy along slowly during the regualar season but were ready to unleash him in the playoffs. However during the end of the regular season Worthy broke his leg in a meaning less regular season game against Phoenix and Worthy was out for the playoffs. The team still reached the NBA Finals, once again matchiing up with the Philadelphia 76ers, however who were now even dangerous having aquirred Moses Malone as a free agent and were playing incredible basketball after going 65-17 in ther regular season having swept the Knicks and beating the Bucks in 5 games in the Eastern Conference playoffs. In the Finals, the Lakers were swept by the Sixers, as Bob McAdoo was unable to play after being injured in the WCF series against the Spurs while Norm Nixon was unable to play game 4 due to a shoulder injury. The Lakers organization had felt if James Worthy had been healthy for the playoffs, along with having Bob McAdoo they would have beaten the Sixers as that certainly seems possible as the Lakers had the lead in all four games at halftime of this series. But again the Sixers were on an incredible roll during the 82-83 season and maybe the Sixers still would have won. Regardless this Laker club was one of the finest NBA sauads that never won a championship.
