The Laker Girls are a

National Basketball Association Cheerleading The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a List of basketball leagues, professional basketball league with teams in the United States and Canada. Nearly every team, with one exception, has a squad of dancers for cheerleading that are usually i ...

squad that supports the

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

team at home games. They also perform at many other events and venues.

Jerry Buss Gerald Hatten Buss (January 27, 1933 – February 18, 2013) was an American businessman, investor, chemist, and philanthropist. He was the majority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), winning 10 l ...

commissioned the Laker Girls in 1979 after he had purchased the Lakers. He believed a basketball game should be entertaining, and he was a big fan of

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

. Cheerleaders were not common in the NBA at the time, but Buss ordered the formation of the squad—a team of top female dancers who were as talented as they were sexy—as part of his vision for Showtime. "I thought the game itself was fantastic, but the ambiance was really kind of dead. It was quiet and boring, and so I thought what I'd like to do is spice it up with having some dancers," he explained. The Laker Girls are a semi-professional squad and members hold regular day jobs ranging from professional dancers to waitresses and university professors. The squad typically performs about 30 routines over the course of the season. They are also local ambassadors for the Lakers organization, and local advocates for female empowerment in the Los Angeles area. The Laker Girls hold auditions in July of every year. Each current member of the squad must also audition to keep her place on the team. Each woman auditioning must come with a resume of their previous jobs. It is required that each prospective candidate comes prepared with her own routine and is taught two routines to perform for the current Laker Girls as well as some judges. Dance skills are the main criterion on which they are judged, but personality, style, and teamwork are also important. Laker Girl,

Paula Abdul Paula Julie Abdul (born June 19, 1962) is an American singer, dancer, choreographer, actress, and television personality. She began her career as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 18 and later became the head choreographe ...

was discovered by

The Jacksons The Jackson 5, later known as the Jacksons, are an American pop band composed of members of the Jackson family. The group was formed in Gary, Indiana in 1964, and originally consisted of brothers Jackie, Ti ...

, who hired her to choreograph the music video for the song "

Torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

". This led to her doing the choreography for their Victory Tour, as well as becoming a notable music video choreographer for other artists, before launching a successful career as singer. Abdul's success has given an extra prestige to being a Laker Girl. A television movie named ''Laker Girls'', starring Tina Yothers (from TV's ''

Family Ties ''Family Ties'' is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC for seven seasons, premiering on September 22, 1982, and concluding on May 14, 1989. The series, created by Gary David Goldberg, reflected the social shift in the United Stat ...

'') and

Alexandra Paul Alexandra Elizabeth Paul (born July 29, 1963) is an American actress. She began her career modeling in New York before landing her first major role in John Carpenter's horror film '' Christine'' (1983). This was followed with prominent roles in ...

(''

Baywatch ''Baywatch'' is an American Drama (film and television), drama television series about lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, and Hawaii, starring David Hasselhoff. It was created by Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz ...

'') aired in 1990, detailing the fictional tribulations of a trio of acolytes trying out to become members of the cheer leading troupe.

Notable former cheerleaders

* Lisa Joann Thompson (choreographer) * Tina Landon (choreographer) * Emily Harper (actress) * Vanessa Curry (dancer) * Taylour Paige (dancer) * Carmella (wrestler) * Shelby Rabara (actress) *

Anne Fletcher Anne Fletcher (born May 1, 1966) is an American choreographer, film director, dancer and actress. She directed the films '' Step Up'' (2006), ''27 Dresses'' (2008), '' The Proposal'' (2009), '' The Guilt Trip'' (2012), ''Hot Pursuit'' (2015), '' D ...

(actress, director) *

Robyn Semien Robyn Semien is a television and radio producer who has worked on ''This American Life'' in radio, television and video formats. Early life Semien attended the University of California, Los Angeles. Career Film and television Semien worked as an ...

(producer)

References

External links

*
Laker Girls web site
(NBA.com) * * {{Los Angeles Lakers Dance in California History of women in California Los Angeles Lakers NBA cheerleading squads