Best Los Angeles Lakers Players of All Time

Who are the top 12 players in Lakers history? From Minneapolis to Showtime, these are the best of the best.

Best Lakers Players of All Time

Magic Johnson — Lakers basketball. It's Magic.

They may not be the oldest NBA franchise or the one with the most championships, but there is no more prestigious basketball team than the Los Angeles Lakers.

They started off as the Minneapolis Lakers and spent a dozen years in the Twin Cities before heading to Hollywood, which is where their cachet began. Athletes love big cities and bright lights, and for an NBA player looking to win on the court and gain fame off the court, Los Angeles is unrivaled.

Just about every great player makes his way to the Lakers at some point. That is evident by six of the top eight scorers in NBA history suiting up for the Lakers. Four of those players make this list. Give LeBron James a couple of years, and he’ll be on it as well.

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But who are the top 12 players in Lakers history, and how would they fill out an all-time team?

These are the best of the best for the 16-time NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers.

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Magic Johnson

Position: Point guard

Experience: 13 years, all with Lakers (1979-91, 1996)

Career stats: 19.5 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 11.2 APG

Championships: Five (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988)

All-time Lakers team role: Starter

Bottom line: It takes a lot to bump the NBA’s logo, Jerry West, to the bench. But Magic Johnson being the greatest point guard in NBA history does just that. He was the catalyst of Showtime in the 1980s and helped bring a style, and personality, to a league that was lacking both.

No one could influence a game without scoring as much as Magic Johnson, who won three MVP awards despite finishing in the top 10 in scoring just once in his career. John Stockton may have taken Johnson’s all-time assists record, but Johnson still holds the records for most assists per game and most assists in the postseason.

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Kobe Bryant

Position: Shooting guard

Experience: 20 years, all with Lakers (1996-2016)

Career stats: 25.0 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 4.7 APG

Championships: Five (2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2010)

All-time Lakers team role: Starter

Bottom line: Just think. Kobe Bryant could have been a Charlotte Hornet. But after drafting him in 1996, the Hornets traded him to the Lakers.

Charlotte’s loss was Los Angeles’ gain, and Bryant rewrote the record books during his 20 years with the Lakers. The length of his high level of play is nearly unmatched as Bryant was the youngest player to start an All-Star Game at 19 and the oldest player to score 60 points in a game at 37.

In between, he won five NBA titles, was a 15-time All-NBA selection and scored more points for the Lakers than anyone else.

The greatest two-guard in Lakers history also is the first and only player in NBA history to have two jerseys retired by the same team.

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Elgin Baylor

Position: Small forward

Experience: 14 years, all with Lakers (1958-71)

Career stats: 27.4 PPG, 13.5 RPG, 4.3 APG

Championships: Zero

All-time Lakers team role: Starter

Bottom line: Everyone on this list besides Elgin Baylor won at least one championship with the Lakers, but this list might not even be conceivable without Baylor. Bob Short, the Minneapolis Lakers' owner who drafted and signed Baylor in 1958, said that the club would have gone out of business due to bankruptcy had Baylor not joined the team.

His arrival paid off immediate dividends both at the gate and on the court as the Lakers made the NBA Finals in Baylor’s rookie season after finishing with the worst record in the league the previous year.

Baylor retired due to injuries 12 games into the 1971-72 season, and his timing couldn’t be any worse. The next game after his retirement, the Lakers began their NBA-record 33-game winning streak, and that season also ended with the Lakers winning an NBA title, the one accomplishment that eluded Baylor.

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Pau Gasol

Position: Power forward

Experience: 18 years (2001-present)

Years with Lakers: 7 seasons (2008-14)

Career stats: 17.3 PPG, 9.3 RPG, 3.2 APG

Lakers stats: 17.7 PPG, 9.9 RPG, 3.5 APG

Championships (titles with Lakers in bold): Two (2009, 2010)

All-time Lakers team role: Starter

Bottom line: Pau Gasol was the missing piece that helped Kobe Bryant get two more titles, and seven seasons in Los Angeles likely vaulted him into Hall of Fame status. The Lakers had not won a single playoff series in three years before Gasol’s arrival, but as soon as he joined the team, the Lakers went to three straight NBA Finals, winning two.

There may have been better bigs to don a Lakers’ jersey other than Gasol, but there weren’t any better power forwards. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him get his jersey retired by the club one day, which would make him the first Lakers power forward to receive that honor.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Position: Center

Experience: 20 years (1969-89)

Years with Lakers: 14 seasons (1975-89)

Career stats: 24.6 PPG, 11.2 RPG, 3.6 APG

Lakers stats: 22.1 PPG, 9.4 RPG, 3.3 APG

Championships (titles with Lakers in bold): Six (1971, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988)

All-time Lakers team role: Starter

Bottom line: Shaq may have been more dominant, and Wilt may have been more famous, but no Lakers center left a legacy like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

He was traded to Los Angeles from Milwaukee because the Midwest didn’t fit his cultural needs, and Abdul-Jabbar proceeded to win five NBA championships and three MVP awards as a Laker. He also further developed the most unstoppable move in NBA history with the skyhook, and that move led him to become the all-time leading scorer in league history.

Many people consider Abdul-Jabbar's career — from high school to college to the NBA —as the greatest in basketball history. The greatest part of that career came with the Lakers.

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Jerry West

Position: Shooting guard and point guard

Experience: 14 years, all with Lakers (1960-74)

Career stats: 27.0 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 6.7 APG

Championships: One (1972)

All-time Lakers team role: Sixth man

Bottom line: As a player and executive, Jerry West has been to an astounding 22 NBA Finals and won nine rings. Just one of those championships came as a player, but West’s impact on the Lakers and the league as a whole is unmatched.

Want proof? His silhouette is the NBA’s logo.

West also is the only Finals MVP winner to come from a losing team (1969), and nd he made the All-Star Game in all of his 14 seasons. That remains a record for the most seasons played in which a player was an All-Star selection in every season.

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Shaquille O'Neal

Position: Center

Experience: 19 years (1992-2011)

Years with Lakers: 8 seasons (1996-2004)

Career stats: 23.7 PPG, 10.9 RPG, 2.5 APG

Lakers stats: 27.0 PPG, 12.5 RPG, 2.4 APG

Championships (titles with Lakers in bold): Four (2000, 2001, 2002, 2006)

All-time Lakers team role: Bench

Bottom line: The peak of Shaq’s career came during his time with the Lakers when he won his lone MVP award and three of his four NBA championships.

The Lakers had hit a lull in the early and mid-1990s following Magic Johnson’s retirement, and the signing of Shaq brought them out of it.

His 27 points per game with the team are just behind Elgin Baylor’s 27.4 ppg for most in franchise history, and Shaq's three Finals MVP awards are tied with Magic Johnson for the most in purple and gold.

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George Mikan

Position: Center

Experience: 7 years, all with Lakers (1948-54, 1956)

Career Stats: 23.1 PPG, 13.4 RPG, 2.8 APG

Championships: Five (1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954)

All-time Lakers team role: Bench

Bottom line: Considered the NBA’s first star, George Mikan was nicknamed Mr. Basketball during his standout career. He was so dominant that he caused many rule changes in the NBA, including the introduction of goaltending and the creation of the shot clock.

A three-time NBA scoring champ, Mikan won five titles with the Minneapolis Lakers as he led the team to the NBA’s first dynasty. He likely would have won multiple MVP awards had the award been around when he played, but the award wasn’t introduced until Mikan's last season in the NBA.

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Wilt Chamberlain

Position: Center

Experience: 14 years (1959-73)

Years with Lakers: 5 seasons (1968-73)

Career stats: 30.1 PPG, 22.9 RPG, 4.4 APG

Lakers stats: 17.7 PPG, 19.2 RPG, 4.3 APG

Championships (titles with Lakers in bold): Two (1967, 1972)

All-time Lakers team role: Bench

Bottom line: "Wilt the Stilt" preferred playing every minute of every game (which he did during the 1961-62 season), but he’ll have to be content with coming off the bench for this mythical Lakers squad.

Wilt Chamberlain very well could be the starting center on an all-time NBA team, but he played just five seasons with the Lakers during his early-to-mid 30s. He was more of a defensive force than the guy who scored 100 points in a game a decade earlier and led the NBA in rebounds in four of his five seasons in Los Angeles.

Chamberlain also proved to be the team's missing piece in the 1972 NBA Finals. After losing their previous eight Finals series appearances, the Lakers won the title, and Chamberlain was the series MVP.

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James Worthy

Position: Power forward and small forward

Experience: 12 years, all with Lakers (1982-94)

Career stats: 17.6 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 3.0 APG

Championships: Three (1985, 1987-88)

All-time Lakers team role: Bench

Bottom line: "Big Game James" would have to take a backseat to his more-heralded teammates on this all-time Lakers team, but he would be the perfect type of player for the second unit.

Worthy was equally adept at running the court and slashing to the rim as he was at abusing smaller defenders in the post. He was the ideal third wheel for the "Showtime" Lakers of the 1980s, and seamlessly replaced fellow Hall of Famer Jamaal Wilkes as the team’s small forward.

Worthy made seven straight NBA All-Star Games and is the only other Laker besides Magic Johnson or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to win a Finals MVP award during their five titles in the 1980s.

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Vern Mikkelsen

Position: Power forward

Experience: 10 years, all with Lakers (1949-59)

Career stats: 14.4 PPG, 9.4 RPG, 2.2 APG

Championships: Four (1950, 1952, 1953, 1954)

All-time Lakers team role: Bench

Bottom line: A native of Minnesota, Vern Mikkelsen was a territorial draft selection by the Minneapolis Lakers in 1949. He did the dirty work at power forward for star center George Mikan, as evidenced by the NBA record Mikkelsen holds.

He fouled out a record 127 times, or about 20 percent of the games he played. And the league did not record disqualifications until Mikkelsen’s second year.

But he did his job as an enforcer and made four All-NBA teams to pair with winning four championships.

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Gail Goodrich

Position: Point guard and shooting guard

Experience: 14 years (1965-79)

Years with Lakers: 9 seasons (1965-68, 1970-76)

Career stats: 18.6 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 4.7 APG

Lakers stats: 19.0 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 4.2 APG

Championships (titles with Lakers in bold): One (1972)

All-time Lakers team role: Bench

Bottom line: A Los Angeles native who then attended UCLA, Gail Goodrich couldn’t get enough of his hometown. He left the Lakers in 1968, only to return after two years in Phoenix.

During Goodrich’s first stint in Los Angeles, he was a bench player who averaged 11 points per game. But when he returned, he had found his confidence and averaged over 22 points per game in four seasons.

Goodrich bridged the gap between the West-Baylor-Chamberlain era and the Abdul-Jabbar era, and he was the leading scorer on the 1972 Lakers team that won a then-record 69 games and the NBA championship.

Phil Jackson

Position: Head coach

Experience: 20 years (1989-98, 1999-2004, 2005-11)

Years with Lakers: 11 seasons (1999-2004, 2005-11)

Career stats: 1640 wins, 1155 losses, .704 winning percentage

Lakers stats: 902 wins, 610 losses, .676 winning percentage

Championships (titles with Lakers in bold): 11 (1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2010)

All-time Lakers team role: Head coach

Bottom Line: This spot could go to Pat Riley, who won four NBA championships with the Lakers. But Phil Jackson built the Lakers into a championship team. Riley inherited a team that won a title 18 months earlier while Jackson molded Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and the rest of the team into winners.

Jackson’s Lakers came just short of matching the postseason success of Jackson’s Chicago Bulls, yet his 118 playoff wins in purple and gold are the second-most in NBA history for one coach with a single franchise, trailing only Gregg Popovich of the Spurs.

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