The Biggest Superteam Failure of All Time

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Four first Ballot Hall of Famers, three MVPs, four Defensive Player of the Years, and 33 All-Star Appearances combined. That was the resume of the Lakers' starting lineup in 2013
And some people, including their starting small forward, Metta World Peace, believed LA would break the Chicago Bulls' record for most wins in a season and win the championship. But they got a season from hell instead. It was a complete nightmare from start to finish, with two coaches getting fired, numerous injuries, constant beefs, and failed expectations. Kobe hated Dwight, Dwight was uncomfortable with Kobe, even Steve Nash beefed with Howard, and they all clashed with coach Mike Brown. This is the story of the 2012-2013 Lakers, and the spectacular failure of one of the most stacked super teams in NBA history.
After they won the 2010 championship against Boston, the Los Angeles Lakers had two disappointing seasons. In 2011, they got swept by Dirk and the Mavericks in the second round of the playoffs, and the following year, they mustered only one win in the second round against the young OKC Thunder. Kobe was getting older, and at the age of 33, it was clear he needed more help to return to championship glory. And the Lakers, being Lakers, went star hunting. First, they acquired Steve Nash from the Phoenix Suns for two first round and two second round picks. Even though Nash was 38 years old at the time, he was still an elite playmaker, averaging 10.7 assists and making the all-star team during his last season in Phoenix. The next Lakers acquisition was forward Antoine Jamison, who, like Nash, was a former all-star, who averaged 20 points and eight rebounds per game between 2000 and 2012 But despite being 36, Jamison averaged 17 points per game prior to signing with the Lakers, and getting him for a veteran minimum contract looked like a no-brainer. However, the biggest fish on the trade market was still swimming in Florida. Until finally, in the middle of August, he decided to follow Shaq's footsteps and replace Orlando with LA.
After four months of speculation, Dwight Howard was finally a Laker in a blockbuster 14 deal that also sent Andrew Bynum to Philadelphia, Andre Iguodala to Denver, and Nikola Vukovic to Orlando, with the total of 12 players changing teams, which was the second biggest transaction of all time. And even though Dwight hadn't played basketball for six months following back surgery, he was widely regarded as the best center and the best defender in the NBA. The Lakers then rounded out their squad by re-signing backup center Jordan Hill and shooting specialist Jody Meeks. So everybody believed they had a perfect off-season and were ready to compete for a championship. Vegas set the over-under on their regular season wins at 58, only trailing the defending champion's Miami Heat, with LA's title odds set at 4-1. During a radio interview before the training camp, Metta World Peace was wildly optimistic, claiming that the Lakers would be undefeatable with the newest additions. We definitely want to beat the Bulls record and go 73-9. That's definitely something I want to do. Whoever is out there at the beginning of the season, we got to get it. It's as simple as that. But despite the championship aspirations and the most expensive roster in the league, the first sign of trouble began before training camp even started. First, Dwight Howard was nowhere close to playing, and reports indicated he'd missed the entire training camp and most of the preseason. However, a much bigger issue was that coach Mike Brown announced he'd implement the Princeton offense, which wasn't well received by the players. Princeton offense is a complex scheme of backdoor screens, cuts, and cross-court movement designed to create equal scoring opportunities for everyone and make offense easier for players who didn't have the ability to create it on their own. But this approach marginalized the one-on-one excellence of Kobe Bryant, the pick and roll brilliance of Steve Nash, and the dominant post-up play of Palgasol. All throughout training camp, the Lakers gave Luke Warm responses when asked about the new offensive system. But when the preseason started, Luke Warm was actually a compliment, because the Lakers absolutely sucked. They lost the first four preseason games, all by double digits, despite Kobe and Nash playing an all but one game. Howard made his debut in the sixth game of the preseason, and despite being out of shape, he finished with 19 points, 12 rebounds, and four blocks. But the Lakers still lost. Ultimately, LA finished the preseason winless, averaging 14-point deficit, and looking nothing like title contenders. But Lakers fans were dismissive of the poor results, claiming that everything would fall into place once everyone got healthy, especially since Kobe and Dwight had played only one preseason game together. However, when the regular season started, things didn't get any better. LA lost their first three games, convincingly. To make bad things even worse, they also lost Steve Nash to injury. And even a 40-point game from Kobe couldn't get him over the hump against the Clippers. Mike Brown said it would take the Lakers three more months to fully adapt to the Princeton offense, which seemed crazy, especially since the roster was filled with veterans. Unsurprisingly, after only two more games and a one-and-four start to the season, Brown was fired, as the Lakers ownership realized they made a big mistake in what was the third fastest coaching dismissal in NBA history. Assistant coach Bernie Biggerstaff became the interim head coach, and Bernie realized the team was over-coached. So he simply let the players play with minimal intrusion, and it worked. The Lakers went 4-1 during the next five games, released from the heavy Princeton Shackles, with Kobe and Dwight finally showing signs of a promising 1-2 punch. But Biggerstaff was never considered a permanent option, and the Lakers were interviewing other coaches. The first option was Phil Jackson, a guy who'd won five championships with the team, having last coached the Lakers in 2011 Phil requested a 48-hour window to consider the offer, but as he was pondering whether to return to the bench, the Lakers had already decided on a new coach. It was Mike D'Antoni, whose successful stint with seven seconds or less Suns was followed by four unsuccessful seasons with the Knicks, where he was fired by the end of the 2012 season. Lakers management believed that D'Antoni's fast-paced offense and familiarity with Nash and Bryant would re-energize the offense. But it was another wrong decision. The Lakers were an old team and weren't equipped to run and shoot a bunch of threes. And like Brown, D'Antoni was trying to get the players to fit a system, instead of molding the system around the players. In his first five games, the Lakers were only marginally better than under Brown, with a two and three record and struggling to get the big men, Gasol and Howard, involved in the new offense. Bryant was also adjusting, running more screen rolls and fewer post-ups than at any time in his career. But then another setback hit the Lakers, as the backup point guard, Steve Blake, got injured, which meant that Kobe Bryant would have to take over the point guard duties since Nash was still rehabbing as well. After the first 17 games, the team, which was supposed to go 73 and nine in the season, had already lost nine games. And with a losing record, they also lost Pal Gasol due to knee tendonitis. And with three of their seven best players out of the lineup, the Lakers sank even further, losing four straight games and dropping to a nine and 14 record, and an embarrassing 12th place in the West. Nash returned in late December after missing 24 games. And with him in the lineup, LA went three and one over the next four games, including a Christmas Day victory against the Knicks. But just as things started to go well, with the start of the new year, it got ugly. The Lakers lost six games in a row, and with a 15 and 21 record, they were five wins away from the final playoff spot, closer to being last than making the playoffs. And if their record was awful, team chemistry was even worse, with Dwight and Kobe getting into an argument and having to be restrained to prevent a full-blown fistfight. Before that controversy could grow, Bryant tweeted a photograph of the two play fighting above Mike D'Antoni, alluding to having a good relationship with each other. But nobody was fooled, as the Lakers looked out of sync on and off the floor. Offensively, they were mediocre, but defensively, they were garbage, with a bottom-five defense in the league. Nash was never a great defender, even in his prime, but at the age of 38, he was absolutely hopeless against almost every point guard in the league. Kobe, once the best perimeter defender in the NBA, was a shadow of his former self defensively, despite still having an elite offensive season. Metta World Peace was a defensive player of the year when he was still Ron Artest, but he was also on the wrong side of 30 in dealing with minor injuries throughout the season, which limited his defensive production. But all those faults could have been raised if Dwight Howard's defense was on the level of his Orlando days. Back then, Dwight was capable of completely shutting down opposing offenses and could swallow up opposing point guards when they dared to come through the paint, thanks to his unreal lateral quickness and vertical athleticism we've never seen before from a center. However, due to his back injury, Howard wasn't that player anymore.