There is no franchise in the NBA that has had more superstars don their jerseys than the Los Angeles Lakers. Every team has legends of the franchise, but the Lakers’ legends are some of the best to ever step foot on an NBA court like Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James.
As such, trying to list the top five Lakers of all time is an extremely difficult task as no matter who you settle on, you are leaving legit Hall of Famers off the list. But at the recent Dodgers All-Access event, Johnson was asked to do just that.
“Kobe going to be one with Kareem,” Johnson told the crowd of Dodgers fans. “Nobody is like Kobe. His killer mentality, hitting big shots after big shots, but also loved being a Laker, loved playing in Los Angeles. He represented the city. Let’s clap for Kobe. We miss him. Nobody is like Kareem. Oh my goodness, the skyhook. He was so intelligent, basketball IQ off the charts. I just loved playing with Kareem. He’s just awesome.
“And then when you think about the other guys, you have to remember I didn’t play with Wilt, I didn’t play with Jerry. You have to put them in there. Shaq was amazing. So I better say the guys I was able to see, because it would be wrong if I tried to go back. So I would say Kareem, Shaq, Kobe, and when I think about it, you have to put Wilt and Jerry in there. James Worthy would definitely qualify. But you try to do five Lakers, and it’s impossible. Because you’ve got put LeBron now. So I don’t know how you get to five. That’s why if you get all of our Hall of Famers, just like the Dodgers, you put all the Dodgers Hall of Famers against any other team, we would beat them. Just like if you put all the Lakers against any team, we would beat them. That’s how I see it. And never include Lakers without Magic.”
Even with Magic leaving himself off the list, it’s still such a tough exercise to limit it to five Lakers legends. Kobe, Kareem and Shaq certainly seem like no-brainers, but Johnson still had to leave off Worthy, James and Elgin Baylor. But it’s hard to argue with who he put on as West is literally the logo of the NBA and Chamberlain put up numbers that have still yet to be matched.
This history is what makes the Lakers such a special franchise and why it just means a little bit more when you succeed in the purple and gold.
Jeanie Buss believes Luka Doncic has now fully embraced being a member of the Lakers
The next big superstar to hopefully be added to this amazing list is Luka Doncic, who is set to enter his first full season with the Lakers. And Lakers governor Jeanie Buss, who traveled to Poland to support Doncic at EuroBasket, believes the guard is finally embracing being a member of the franchise after initially being very sad at being traded in the first place.
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