The 1981–82 NBA season saw the Lakers win the NBA Finals for their third NBA championship in Los Angeles, and their eighth overall in franchise history.
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Roster
Soon before the start of training camp, Jamaal Wilkes' eight-day-old daughter died, his second child to die as a baby. He started the season slowly, culminating with a 1-for-10 shooting performance in a 128–102 loss to San Antonio on November 10, 1982. He seriously considered quitting basketball.[2]
On November 18, 1981, at halftime while on the road at Utah, Magic Johnson and coach Paul Westhead had a verbal altercation in the locker room. It was stated by teammate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar that Johnson had offered input on the game, which resulted in Westhead twice telling him to "Shut up." Johnson then told reporters after this game that he would like to be traded anywhere,[3] resulting in a barrage of media coverage. One day after these events, Lakers owner Jerry Buss held a press conference at The Forum, where he announced the firing of Westhead, with his replacement being Pat Riley as "coach" and general manager Jerry West as "offensive coach". West came to the podium and clarified to media that Riley was indeed the head coach and that West himself would simply provide him support on the bench, which lasted for a period of 12 games. Although Johnson denied responsibility for Westhead's firing,[4] he was booed across the league, even by Lakers' fans.[5] However, Buss was also unhappy with the Lakers offense and had intended on firing Westhead days before the Westhead–Johnson altercation, but assistant GM West and GM Bill Sharman had convinced Buss to delay his decision.[6]
Wilkes recovered to average 21.1 points and shoot 52.5% as Los Angeles advanced to the NBA Finals, where they faced Philadelphia. Wilkes scored a team-high 27 points in game 6 as the Lakers won the series 4–2. Johnson had a triple-double with 13 points, 13 rebounds, 13 assists and four steals and was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player.[2]