Lakers: An Official History of the Purple & Gold

Welcome to the greatest show on hardwood. Produced in collaboration with the Lakers, this authorized illustrated history is the definitive portrait of sport's most glamorous franchise: seventeen championships, seven decades, a dynasty of spectacle and style, grit and competition, fashion and identity. This massive book captures an indomitable, enduring legacy.

L.A. Legends in Purple & Gold

The Definitive Illustrated History of the Los Angeles Lakers

Welcome to the greatest show on hardwood. Produced in collaboration with the Lakers, this authorized illustrated history is the definitive portrait of the most glamorous franchise in sports: seventeen championships, seven decades, and a dynasty that turned a team into a cultural institution. This is basketball as spectacle and style, grit, fierce competition, fashion, and how a team learned to define and entertain Los Angeles—a city that expected nothing less. More than a record of banners, this massive book is the portrait of an indomitable and enduring dynasty.

An illustrated history years in the making, built from exhaustive research through franchise vaults, league archives, and private collections. Rare and never-before-published photographs, vintage ephemera, and original artwork fill its pages, much of it revealed here for the first time. Stunningly illustrated with hundreds of images by photographers like Neil Leifer, Andrew D. Bernstein, and Walter Iooss Jr., and featuring rarely seen memorabilia and artifacts from the renowned David Kohler Lakers Shrine.

Lakers is told by the people who built it — a foreword by iconic champion Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; an introduction by Lakers' governor Jeanie Buss; and an afterword by one of the greatest head coaches in the league's history, Phil Jackson. Detailing all the guts and glory are exclusive essays and reflections from legends Magic Johnson, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott, Pat Riley, Shaquille O'Neal, Pau Gasol, LeBron James, and Luka Dončić, alongside the courtside icons who made Lakers basketball a cultural phenomenon: Jack Nicholson, Dyan Cannon, Lou Adler, Paula Abdul, and Flea.

Inside, the book traces the full arc of the Purple & Gold, from their scrappy origins in Minneapolis to icon status. From superstars to the fans in the stands, the Lakers story belongs to everyone who ever bled Purple & Gold. Starting with George Mikan and the league’s first dynasty; the hard-fought years against Boston, rich with rivalry lore, when Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, and Wilt Chamberlain carried the fight; and 1979, when a new owner named Dr. Jerry Buss decided a great team wasn’t enough. The Lakers needed to entertain, and to match the glamour of their new home base. What followed was the dazzling Showtime epoch of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Michael Cooper and others; the unforgettable three-peat of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant; the Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol championships; and the LeBron James era that carried the Lakers into a new century, onward to Luka Dončić and the team’s future.

This hefty tome is a game changer for basketball books, paying homage to the heroes of the hardwood and their fans. A landmark work for every Lakers fan, collector, and lover of sports. This is the definitive visual chronicle of a franchise that turned basketball into spectacle, and spectacle into history.

The author

Vikki Tobak is an author, journalist, and curator whose work spans music, sports, style, and culture. She is the author of Ice Cold: A Hip-Hop Jewelry History, Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop, and The Streets Win. She curated the traveling exhibition Contact High and For the Win: Objects of Sports Excellence at the American Museum of Natural History. Her work has appeared in Complex, Rolling Stone, The FADER, Mass Appeal, Paper, Vibe, i-D, the Detroit News, CBS, CNN, and Bloomberg News. Tobak began her career as a culture editor at Paper before joining Payday Records/Empire Management, working with Gang Starr, Jay-Z, Mos Def, and other hip-hop legends.

The editor

Vikki Tobak is an author, journalist, and curator whose work spans music, sports, style, and culture. She is the author of Ice Cold: A Hip-Hop Jewelry History, Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop, and The Streets Win. She curated the traveling exhibition Contact High and For the Win: Objects of Sports Excellence at the American Museum of Natural History. Her work has appeared in Complex, Rolling Stone, The FADER, Mass Appeal, Paper, Vibe, i-D, the Detroit News, CBS, CNN, and Bloomberg News. Tobak began her career as a culture editor at Paper before joining Payday Records/Empire Management, working with Gang Starr, Jay-Z, Mos Def, and other hip-hop legends.

Lakers. An Official History of the Purple & GoldHardcover, 25 x 34 cm, 3.86 kg, 528 pages

ISBN 978-3-8365-9844-6

Edition: English