Los Angeles Lakers: All-Time NBA Finals team
By Amaar Burton
Bench
- PG/SG – Jerry West
- SF – James Worthy
- C – George Mikan
- C – Wilt Chamberlain
- PF – Pau Gasol
- SF – Jamaal Wilkes
- SG – Michael Cooper
Leave it up to the Lakers to have such an embarrassment of riches that they would have multiple Finals MVPs coming off the bench on this fantasy team.
Jerry West’s 1-8 Finals record is certainly not the headline on his Hall of Fame plaque, but “Mr. Clutch” does own the honor of being the only player to win Finals MVP in a losing effort. In the 1969 Finals, West averaged 37.9 points and 7.4 assists per game as L.A. lost to the Celtics in seven games. The year he did win a title, West averaged 19.8 points and 8.8 assists per game as L.A. beat the New York Knicks.
The MVP of that year’s Finals was Wilt Chamberlain, who averaged 19.4 points and 23.2 rebounds per game. Chamberlain went 1-3 in the Finals during his time with the Lakers. This was the phase of his career after he’d decided he didn’t want to score 40-50 points every night — which he could have if he felt like it. He was still a monster on the glass, though.
James Worthy won three titles with L.A. and was voted Finals MVP in 1988 when he averaged 22.0 points and 7.4 rebounds in the Lakers’ win over the Detroit Pistons. Worthy is one of three players to record a triple-double in Game 7 of the Finals; he put up 36 points, 16 rebounds and 10 rebounds in the 1988 finale. The other two players to do that both have Lakers ties: West and LeBron James.
If the Finals MVP award had been created prior to 1969, George Mikan might have five of them. Pro basketball’s first real superstar led the Minneapolis Lakers to five titles and a perfect 5-0 Finals record, averaging 23.9 points per game in the Finals.
Pau Gasol was Kobe Bryant’s righthand man in the latter half of Kobe’s career, helping L.A. make the Finals three times and win two championships. A lot of people still argue that Gasol should have been Finals MVP in 2010, when he averaged 18.6 points, 11.6 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game as the Lakers beat the Celtics.
Jamaal Wilkes is an oft-forgotten Finals hero. Magic Johnson‘s performance in Game 6 of the 1980 Finals — when he stepped up in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar‘s absence and led L.A. past the 76ers — is deservedly famous. What doesn’t get talked about much is that Wilkes scored 37 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in that game. Wilkes also led the Lakers in scoring during the 1982 NBA Finals, averaging 19.7 points per game in another win over the 76ers.
Every team needs a defensive stopper, and Michael Cooper fills that role on this roster. The shooting guard didn’t shoot the ball much on the “Showtime” Lakers of the 1980s, but he made eight NBA All-Defensive teams, won Defensive Player of the Year in 1987, and helped L.A. capture five championships.
Cooper, Kareem and Magic are the only three Lakers who were on all five title teams from that era. Cooper’s standout Finals performance was in 1987, when he averaged 12.0 points, 4.7 assists and 1.7 steals per game as L.A. beat the Celtics.