If you’re over a certain age, you probably swear that the Lakers were cooking up titles 2-9 in the 80s-00s just like you swear the Monopoly man had a monocle, the Berenstain Bears were actually the Berenstein Bears, and Kit Kats were actually Kit-Kats.

What you’re experiencing is one of the NBA’s creepiest version of the Mandela effect along with shocking facts like the iconic Bron/Wade picture not being an alley-oop, Melo not actually being on the Banana boat, and the Space Jam jerseys saying “Tune Squad” not “Toon Squad”.

The Mandela effect, sometimes referred to as the Mandela phenomenon, is an instance of false memory. In psychology, a false memory is a phenomenon where someone recalls something that did not happen or recalls it differently from the way it actually happened.

Alas, you’re not going crazy. Nobody in the Los Angeles franchise, the league, the media or the fans acknowledged the 5 Minneapolis Lakers championships for several decades. There was an entire 40 year period from 1960 to 2002 where nobody counted those titles. In 1972, they Celebrated their first championship. In the 80s, they celebrated their 2nd-6th championship. Go back and watch tapes you’ll hear sportscasters talk about them winning “banner #4” for instance. If you need proof, just look at their 1986-87 season where the franchise built an entire marketing campaign around “The Drive for Five”. It was on their advertisements, their t-shirts, the title of their championship documentary, and even engraved on their championship ring.

Even the famous picture of Kobe in the bathroom makes it clear the Lakers had just won their 8th championship. Look at the patch on his right arm and it clearly shows “8 Time NBA Champions” which each of the Lakers NBA titles listed by year: 1972, 1980, 1982, 1985 on one arm, 1987, 1988, 2000, 2001 on the other arm.

The whole world collectively understood those Minnesota titles belonged in Minnesota.

It wasn’t until 2002, well in the midst of the Kobe/Shaq dynasty, that Jerry Buss got the bright idea to finally pad the championship titles. This was done in large part because the Lakers were cooking up their 9th title (while the rival Celtics had 16), and up until that point the Lakers had been beaten by the Celtics in 8 out of 10 head-to-head matchups. The league was also starved for ways to capture the attention of casual sports fans post-Jordan retirement and inflating the Lakers as “chasing history” seemed to be a viable marketing campaign.

So April 12th, 2002, Buss decided to raise a banner acknowledging 1940s/50s Minneapolis Lakers titles. Adding a little extra insult to the spectacle, they did it in a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Said Lakers color commentator during the broadcast:

“So, you add those five championships with the eight Laker banners that are up there, and you’ve got 13 franchise championships!”

Said Jerry Buss:

“This puts it all together,” he said. “I like the completeness of it all. It should have been done before, but I didn’t recognize the necessity.”

It seems the “necessity” was padding the title count so they could market Shaq and Kobe “chasing history”. By the end of the year the Lakers had “14” to Boston’s 16. With no signs of slowing down at that point, surpassing the Celtics and make-believing they were the greatest team ever was potentially a great way to market the team and the league as a whole to casuals who had lost interest in the NBA post-Jordan retirement.

Championship padding is a weird thing. This year some Laker fans tried to also retroactively claim the 1948 Minneapolis NBL championship to pretend they have 18, which is the equivalent of the Boston Celtics pretending they share a history with the barnstorming Celtics teams of the 1920s that played in NYC/Brooklyn since they were the spiritual successor to that team, and retroactively adding the Original Celtics 1922 EBL championship, 1927 ABL Championship and 1928 ABL Championship to their title count to claim “the Celtics” are 21x Champions.

What’s odd is that the Minnesota Timberwolves have never seemed to care about their city’s basketball history, as evidence by them not putting in a claim for 5+ championships won in their city and the ridiculous fact they still haven’t retired KG’s jersey, but if Anthony Edwards continues his superstar trajectory and starts winning rings, it will be interesting to see if they reconsider that stance. If they reclaim their basketball history, they’d just be 2 Edwards titles away from from tying the Warriors for 3rd best all-time with 7. Actually, if they want to just reclaim their history now and add that nonsense 1948 EBL title, they can just claim Minnesota is tied with the Bulls right now for 4th all time with 6 and market Edwards as the next great player in their city’s proud history of basketball champions. Might be a smart move to get that campaign going now if there still remains concerns of that franchise relocating.

TL;DR: While the history of LA ignoring Minnesota’s titles might seem like a Mandela effect, it was actually a specific day in 2002 when LA stole Minnesota’s basketball history, in a game against Minnesota, and padded their title count for marketing purposes.