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.
Lucius Allen went from growing up in Kansas City to being a member of John Wooden’s legendary University of California, Los Angeles basketball teams. He started out on the Bruins’ freshman team in the 1965-66 season, where he was teammates with a young, promising center named Lew Alcindor, a player he would become very familiar with in the coming years.
Allen moved onto the varsity team the next season and won two straight NCAA championships with Alcindor over the next two years. After skipping his senior season of eligibility, he was then taken by the Seattle SuperSonics with the No. 3 pick in the 1969 NBA Draft.
The 6-foot-2 guard reunited with Alcindor during his second season as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks and promptly won an NBA title that year. Alcindor soon changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and spent three and a half more seasons with Allen on the Bucks, but the team failed to win it all again.
Allen was traded to the Lakers early in the 1974-75 season for Jim Price. Following that season, Abdul-Jabbar was also sent to the Lakers, and it was hoped that a new era would begin for the franchise. But the era got off to a gloomy start, as Los Angeles missed the playoffs in 1976. The following season, even though it had the NBA’s best record, it was swept in the Western Conference finals after Allen injured his foot.
He was traded to the Kansas City Kings shortly afterward after averaging 16 points and 5.1 assists a game as a member of the Lakers. His playing career ended in 1979 with lifetime averages of 13.4 points and 4.5 assists a game in the NBA.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers jersey history No. 40/No. 42 — Lucius Allen
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
