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.
The 2021 offseason was a disastrous one for the Lakers. They traded Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell and the rights to Isaiah Jackson, their 2021 first-round draft pick, to the Washington Wizards for Russell Westbrook, which meant they dismantled a good part of their 2020 championship team for a player in Westbrook who wouldn’t fit in. Even worse, they filled out the rest of their roster with marginal players who were too long in the tooth to contribute.
In particular, they were left with a lack of viable forwards and big men. Therefore, late in the 2021-22 season, Los Angeles signed free agent forward Wenyen Gabriel.
Gabriel had spent two prior seasons in the NBA, and at 6-foot-9 and roughly 210 pounds, he was undersized, especially for the center position. But he played with plenty of energy, effort and heart, and that allowed him to stick around in L.A.’s rotation through the end of the following year.
He averaged 5.7 points and 4.2 rebounds in 15.3 minutes a game while with the Lakers. He left them in 2023 and spent the next season, his last in the NBA, with the Memphis Grizzlies, and he ended up with league career averages of 4.4 points and 3.4 rebounds in 12.9 minutes a game.
Since leaving Memphis, Gabriel has had stints in Puerto Rico, Israel, Greece and Germany.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers jersey history No. 35 — Wenyen Gabriel
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
