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 Lakers won two of the first three NBA championships of the 1980s, and in 1982, after their second title of the decade, they had a major stroke of good fortune. Thanks to a trade they made a couple of years before, they had the No. 1 pick in the draft, which they acquired from the Cleveland Cavaliers. They could’ve taken Dominique Wilkins, who went on to make nine All-Star teams and win a scoring title, but they instead went with 6-foot-9 forward James Worthy, who had just helped lead the University of North Carolina to the NCAA title.
Worthy was integrated gradually into the Lakers’ frontcourt, but by his third season, he was a regular starter and a blossoming star. When the team won the 1985 world championship against the Celtics, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the NBA Finals MVP, but Worthy was a thorn in the Celtics’ side by averaging 23.7 points a game in the series.
It was the first sign that he was a genuine playoff riser, as well as the beginning of him earning the nickname “Big Game James.” In Game 7 of the 1988 NBA Finals, he posted 36 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists as Los Angeles won back-to-back titles and its fifth title of the 1980s by downing the Detroit Pistons. As Abdul-Jabbar aged, Worthy became a bigger part of L.A.’s offense, and the team went to him more and more.
In all, Worthy played 12 seasons in the league, all of them with the Lakers, and made the All-Star team seven straight times. He retired with a career average of 17.6 points a game in the regular season and 21.1 points a game in the playoffs and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003. While he didn’t have quite the same lofty aura as Abdul-Jabbar or Magic Johnson, his place in Lakers lore as a pillar of the Showtime era is unmistakable.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers jersey history No. 42 — James Worthy
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
