{"id":83955,"date":"2025-07-29T07:40:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T07:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=83955"},"modified":"2025-07-29T07:40:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T07:40:19","slug":"breaking-kobe-bryant-named-the-5-greatest-los-angeles-lakers-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=83955","title":{"rendered":"Breaking: Kobe Bryant Named the 5 Greatest Los Angeles Lakers of All-Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kobe Bryant\u00a0is seen by many\u00a0NBA\u00a0fans as one of the\u00a0greatest basketball players of all-time. The late, great superstar made it his mission to carve out his own legacy in the game, winning multiple titles and even winning the MVP award too.<\/p>\n

Following in the footsteps of\u00a0Michael Jordan, Bryant’s career was intrinsically linked with the\u00a0Chicago Bulls\u00a0legend, given they both had similar personalities and a relentless will to win.<\/p>\n

Given his longevity with the\u00a0Los Angeles Lakers, Bryant unsurprisingly can count himself among the best in franchise history. But who did the shooting guard himself say can be considered among the greatest Lakers players of all-time?<\/p>\n

Having played with a host of incredible stars, including Shaquille O’Neal, Bryant\u00a0narrowed it down to a list\u00a0of the top five. Find out below who he chose, and the big omissions that he made.<\/p>\n

Magic Johnson<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Unsurprisingly, Bryant named arguably the\u00a0greatest point guard of all-time\u00a0as one of the best players in Lakers history. Magic Johnson had a remarkable career that saw him battle tremendous adversity and still come out on top. With vision that was unmatched – not to mention the kind of supreme advantage he had over other guards given his size – Magic could make all types of passes.<\/p>\n

His role in helping to create one of the biggest rivalries the NBA has ever seen during the 1980s, cannot be understated. The Lakers’ battles with the\u00a0Boston Celtics\u00a0were legendary, and Johnson coming up against Larry Bird saw arguably the two dominant forces of the decade locking horns in the playoffs when the spotlight was at its brightest.<\/p>\n

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I grew up watching Magic, and I\u2019ve learned so much from him. I can\u2019t say that I\u2019m the greatest Laker ever, to me he is. To keep it real with you, I\u2019ve stolen so much from him, that my game wouldn\u2019t be complete without him!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Jerry West<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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An all-time great, Jerry West may not have the amount of championship rings as a Magic Johnson or Kobe Bryant, but he more than established his legacy in a Los Angeles Lakers jersey.\u00a0One of the greatest clutch players in NBA history, West is perhaps best known for his incredible 60-foot, buzzer-beating shot that ended up tying Game 3 of the Finals against the New York Knicks back in 1970.<\/p>\n

Still holding the record for the highest average in a playoffs series – he managed 46.3 against the Baltimore Bullets in the first round of the 1965 post-season – West stepped up his game when things were on the line.<\/p>\n

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As a player, he’s the logo of the league. What he’s done of the league and then also the teams that he’s built — the team that changed the face of basketball. For him to put me in that company, he’s the man that drafted me and you know he’s going to give you his honest response no matter what, it means I must have done something right.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Elgin Baylo<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Alongside Jerry West, Elgin Baylor was long regarded as one of the top three Los Angeles Lakers stars of all-time until the surge of talent that came through with the likes of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. A supreme scorer, Baylor played well above his size and still holds the record for the most number of rebounds as a Laker, despite standing at only 6 foot 5.<\/p>\n

A 11-time All-Star who was named to the All-NBA First Team on ten occasions, Baylor may not have won a championship with the Lakers, but his greatness is recognised by the fact his no.22 jersey has been retired by the franchise.<\/p>\n

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Everything I heard about Elgin, everything I read about Elgin, was that he was Dr. J and Michael Jordan before Dr. J. & Michael Jordan. He gets to the basket and does all these incredible things. But I want to know how to get to the basket.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s cool to be able to do all those fancy things, but how did you get there?\u2026 He had great footwork, very explosive first step and very strong. And we forget his size, how big he was and how strong he was. So once he did that shoulder and got by players, it was basically\u2026 at his mercy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The man with the most NBA MVP awards in history with six – one more than Michael Jordan –\u00a0Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was quite simply an unstoppable scorer. Armed with arguably the most dangerous single shot\/manoeuver in history with his unguardable sky-hook, Abdul-Jabbar terrorised the association for so many years, first with the Milwaukee Bucks, then with the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n

A multiple-time champion who was a huge part of why the Lakers enjoyed so much success in the post-season in the 1980s, Kareem may no longer hold the record of the most points in NBA history, but still goes down as\u00a0one of the best to ever play at the center.<\/p>\n

Wilt Chamberlain<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In terms of the\u00a0most dominant players the game has ever seen, Wilt Chamberlain is certainly up there in the conversation for being the absolute very best alongside fellow former Laker,\u00a0Shaquille O’Neal. A towering presence, Wilt the Stilt dominated the boards like no other, leading the league in rebounding an astonishing 11 times across his 14-year career in the NBA – in fact, one game even saw him register the feat of pulling down 55 rebounds.<\/p>\n

A two-time champ, Chamberlain won Finals MVP with the Lakers in their 1972 title triumph. Although arguably some of his best years came in Philadelphia – he won all four of his MVP awards there – there’s no questioning the kind of impact he made while with the Lakers, and can undoubtedly count himself among the best in franchise history.<\/p>\n

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That’s amazing. It was a different game, still, 50 points and 25 rebounds is 50 points and 25 rebounds. It’s a credit to Wilt’s physical specimen and how talented he was.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kobe Bryant\u00a0is seen by many\u00a0NBA\u00a0fans as one of the\u00a0greatest basketball players of all-time. The late, great superstar made it his mission to carve out his own legacy… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\nBreaking: Kobe Bryant Named the 5 Greatest Los Angeles Lakers of All-Time - News 365<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=83955\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Breaking: Kobe Bryant Named the 5 Greatest Los Angeles Lakers of All-Time - News 365\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kobe Bryant\u00a0is seen by many\u00a0NBA\u00a0fans as one of the\u00a0greatest basketball players of all-time. 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