Los Angeles Lakers: 10 best shooting guards in team history

HONOLULU, HI - OCTOBER 16: Kobe Bryant #8 and Eddie Jones #6 of the Los Angeles Lakers talk against the Dallas Mavericks during a preseason game on October 16, 1996 at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1996 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images) /

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10. Whitey Skoog (1951-57)

Myer Skoog, a.k.a. “Whitey,” was a Minnesota basketball lifer. He was born in the city of Duluth, played high school ball in Brainerd, was a college star at the University of Minnesota, and spent all of his pro career with the Minneapolis Lakers.

Skoog is credited by some hoop historians as the inventor of the jump shot and widely recognized as one of the first players to use the jump shot in an organized basketball game.

In six pro seasons, Skoog averaged 8.2 points per game. He won championships in each of his first three years with the Lakers. His most notable stretch was when he scored 24 points apiece in Games 2 and 3 of the 1955 Western Division Finals (that era’s version of the Western Conference Finals) against the Fort Wayne Pistons.

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Back injuries forced Skoog out of the game when he was only 30 years old.

He got into coaching after that, guiding both the men’s basketball and golf teams at Gustavus Adolphus College in — you guessed it — Minnesota.

Whitey Skoog passed away in 2019.

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