Los Angeles Lakers: 5 best players in franchise history to never win a ring

The Los Angeles Lakers have enjoyed 16 NBA championships throughout franchise history. These five stars, however, weren’t a part of any of those dominant squads.

One of the most storied franchises in NBA history, the Los Angeles Lakers currently have 16 championships to their name. For those of you keeping count, that’s second only to the Boston Celtics (17) and 10 more than the Chicago Bulls, the team with the third-most titles.

As many of you know, a reason for the Lakers’ long list of championships is due to their long list of superstars. Names like Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kobe Bryant come to mind when discussing some of the greatest to ever don the purple and gold. There are, however, a few noteworthy names that never learned what winning it all felt like.

Seems crazy, right? With how many rings the Lakers have won over the years, you’d figure every great in team history would have one. That’s not the case, though. There are several big-name Lakers who failed to go the distance during their NBA careers.

That’s why we’re here today — to pinpoint who they are. We won’t dig too deeply into why they never won a title, but you can bet it wasn’t for a lack of effort.

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So without further ado, here are the five greatest Lakers player who never won a ring. There’s no denying the impact they made during their heydays, but they will forever remain ring-less with their basketball careers in the rearview mirror.