Showtime Lakers

In basketball, Showtime was an era in Los Angeles Lakers history when the National Basketball Association (NBA) team played an exciting run-and-gun style of basketball. Led by Magic Johnson's passing skills and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's scoring, the team relied on fast breaks and won five NBA championships. Lakers owner Jerry Buss purchased the team in 1979, and he wanted their games to be entertaining. He insisted that the Lakers play an up-tempo style, and the team hired dancers and a live band for their home games at The Forum. The team established a Hollywood-celebrity following.

Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke in 1979 was in the process of selling the team to Jerry Buss. Possessing the first overall pick in the upcoming 1979 NBA Draft, the Lakers narrowed their choice to either Magic Johnson or Sidney Moncrief. Los Angeles already had a fine point guard in Norm Nixon, making Moncrief potentially a wonderful complement at off guard. However, Cooke liked Johnson's smile and playing style. In one of Cooke's last acts as Lakers owner, the Lakers drafted the point guard Johnson.

Buss wanted Lakers games to be entertaining. In the 1960s, Buss was a regular at The Horn, a nightclub in Santa Monica, California that attracted an upscale clientele. Buss loved the excitement of the club's famous opening act, which included a dimming of the lights followed by a dramatic singing of their signature tune, "It's Showtime". After he purchased the Lakers and The Forum from Cooke, Buss embarked on creating a grand-scale version of The Horn. Like a night club act, he believed a basketball game should be entertaining.

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