The 2001–02 NBA season was the Lakers' 54th season in the National Basketball Association, and 42nd in the city of Los Angeles. During the offseason, the Lakers signed All-Star guard Mitch Richmond and free agent Samaki Walker, while acquiring Lindsey Hunter from the Milwaukee Bucks. The team got off to a fast start winning 16 of their first 17 games, and finished second in the Pacific Division with a 58–24 record. Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal were both selected for the 2002 NBA All-Star Game in which Bryant won MVP honors, but O'Neal did not participate in the All-Star game due to an injury.

After sweeping the Portland Trail Blazers 3–0 in the first round of the playoffs, then defeating the San Antonio Spurs 4–1 in the semifinals, the Lakers where pushed to the brink once more in the Western Conference Finals by their archrivals the Sacramento Kings, who they narrowly defeated in a deciding seventh game. They then went on to win the NBA Finals, defeating and sweeping the New Jersey Nets in four straight games for their second three-peat in franchise history, the first since 1952–54. Following the season, Richmond retired and Hunter was traded to the Toronto Raptors.

Although they returned to the Finals in 2004, the Lakers lost to the Detroit Pistons in five games, despite being the heavy favorites to win and also having former All-Stars and veterans Gary Payton and Karl Malone, leading to O'Neal's departure from the Lakers amidst boiling points between the Lakers staff and management and Kobe Bryant, being traded to the Miami Heat, ending the early 2000s Lakers dynasty. They would not win another title until 2009, in which they defeated the Orlando Magic in five games.

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