Through the 2024-25 season, the Los Angeles Lakers have had a total of 506 players suit up for them, going back to their days in Minneapolis. Some were forgettable, some were serviceable, some were good and a select few were flat-out legendary.
During the Lakers’ 80th season of existence (they were founded back in 1946 as the Detroit Gems in the National Basketball League), LeBron Wire is taking a look at each player who has worn their jersey, whether it has been a purple and gold one or the ones they donned back in the Midwest during their early years.
In the summer of 1983, the Lakers had been swept in the NBA Finals by the Philadelphia 76ers, and they knew that changes needed to be made if they were to return to the top of the basketball world. They would trade popular star point guard Norm Nixon for center Swen Nater and the rights to Byron Scott, the No. 4 pick in that year’s draft, just prior to the start of the 1983-84 season. Several weeks before that, they signed forward Larry Spriggs as a free agent.
Spriggs had been a fourth-round draft choice in 1981 by the Houston Rockets out of Howard University. He had a stint during the 1981-82 campaign with the Rochester Zeniths of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA), where he was named the Rookie of the Year. He had appeared in a total of 13 regular-season games in his first two years in the NBA when the Lakers picked him up.
With Los Angeles, he became a fringe rotation player and averaged 5.4 points and 2.4 rebounds in 13.6 minutes a game during three seasons with the team while winning an NBA championship with it in 1985. The 6-foot-7 forward left the league following the 1985-86 season and spent the next decade of his basketball career playing in foreign countries such as Spain, Turkey, Italy and France.
In the NBA, Spriggs ended up with career averages of 5.2 points and 2.3 rebounds in 13 minutes per game.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers jersey history No. 35 — Larry Spriggs
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
