The Los Angeles Lakers organization is one of the most historic in all of sports, winning 17 championships with countless Hall of Famers donning the purple and gold at one point or another.
One more Hall of Famer was recently added to the list as Michael Cooper was announced as a part of the 2024 class to be inducted later this year.
It’s a long overdue election for Cooper, who played his entire 12-year NBA career with the Lakers from 1978-90, won five championships while being named to eight All-Defensive teams and winning Defensive Player of the Year in 1986-87.
To celebrate Cooper’s Hall of Fame election, the Lakers hosted him and a number of other Showtime players for a ceremony during halftime of Thursday night’s Game 3 against the Denver Nuggets.
Among those on hand in addition to Cooper were Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, AC Green, Kurt Rambis, Byron Scott and Jamaal Wilkes.
Cooper spoke and thanked the fans and Lakers organization for all the support over the years, while Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar and Worthy all also spoke to show love to their former teammate.
It was a quick but fun ceremony with Cooper getting his well-deserved flowers after all these years.
Lakers’ Michael Cooper reflects on being named to 2024 Hall of Fame class
Shortly after the announcement, Cooper reflected on finally making the Hall of Fame and talked about how he found out about the great news.
“We’re gonna pay homage to the Hall of Fame, and the reason I say that is because I f—ing got in. Nick I’m laying in the bed and I knew the call was coming that day and at 9:08, don’t forget that 9:08, I get a call and it’s Jerry Colangelo. And he’s saying they’re talking and you know I had heard that talk two other times before and they go ‘you know Coop, you’re a Hall of Famer, but you didn’t get in this time.’ And finally I just kinda like went numb you know because they were talking, but I couldn’t quite hear what they were talking about, my wife was sitting next to me and they said, ‘Coop you got in.’
“So I’m sitting there and I’m just kind of like looking and waiting for them to say you didn’t get in and my wife said ‘Babe, you got in.’ I said what? She said, ‘They said you got in’ and Nick I let out this yell, man. And then when I got my senses back I said, ‘Is this an April Fools joke?’ And they were kind of like ‘No, Coop, you really got in, congratulations!’ I was like you know this is very, very cruel, because everybody wants to get into the Hall of Fame. Coming with that joke on April Fools, but you know what, it turned out to be true. It was last Monday, here we are this Monday, April 9 I believe we’re in today, and this was April 1 and Nick it was like a whirlwind.”
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