1988 Los Angeles Lakers

Riley's guarantee hung over the whole season. The Lakers answered with the league's best record at 62-20, though the scoring load shifted: Byron Scott led the team at 21.7 a game and Worthy added 19.7 as Abdul-Jabbar aged into a smaller role.

The playoffs were a grind. Los Angeles needed seven games to get past both Utah and Dallas in the West before meeting Detroit. The Pistons, in their first Finals, took a 3-2 lead and pushed the series back to the Forum.

The Lakers won Game 6 by a point and Game 7 by three. Worthy's triple-double in the finale, the only one of his Hall of Fame career, earned him Finals MVP and the nickname Big Game James. The 108-105 win made the Lakers the NBA's first repeat champions in 19 years.

It was the last title of the Showtime run and Abdul-Jabbar's sixth and final championship. Detroit would not forget the loss, and they would be back in the Finals the next two years.

Looking back, after the 1987 parade, Pat Riley publicly guaranteed the Lakers would repeat, a promise no team had kept since the 1969 Celtics. They made good on it, going 62-20 and outlasting the Detroit Pistons in a seven-game Finals. James Worthy clinched it with the only triple-double of his career, 36 points, 16 rebounds, and 10 assists in Game 7.

The starting five was Magic Johnson, Byron Scott, James Worthy, A.C. Green, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Pat Riley coached the group with Michael Cooper as the primary bench scorer.

This was title number 2 in a Los Angeles Lakers run that stretched across consecutive or near-consecutive seasons. Repeat winners carried continuity from one year to the next.

By 1988 the NBA had expanded nationwide and the Finals were a national television event. The Los Angeles Lakers title run still required winning the East or West bracket, then taking the championship round.

The Los Angeles Lakers share a lineage with other banners from 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1972, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2010, 2020. Compare those seasons on the franchise hub to see how the roster and style changed between title runs.

Looking back, after the 1987 parade, Pat Riley publicly guaranteed the Lakers would repeat, a promise no team had kept since the 1969 Celtics. They made good on it, going 62-20 and outlasting the Detroit Pistons in a seven-game Finals. James Worthy clinched it with the only triple-double of his career, 36 points, 16 rebounds, and 10 assists in Game 7.

For the full roster beyond the featured starters, see the table on this page. For other Los Angeles Lakers titles, use the franchise hub linked below.