It’s been a favorite pastime of current and former Los Angeles Lakers as well as famous fans of the team to list out their all-time starting five. With the astonishing number of Hall of Famers to choose from, it is truly a tough decision to narrow it down to just five players.
Current head coach Luke Walton was among the latest to join the fray, and he has a special connection to the franchise, not only as a coach, but also a former player. Walton won two championships with the Lakers as part of the Kobe Bryant-led 2009 and 2010 teams.
As such, it should come as no surprise that Bryant was a part of Luke Walton’s all-time lineup, as was current Lakers president Magic Johnson. Somehow, Luke even found a way to get himself a spot way down on the roster as well via the Lakers.com’s Voices series:
“Magic, Kob, Jerry West, Shaq and Kareem. I don’t care that they don’t fit in certain positions. We’re going to find a way to win. We’re going to switch a lot, and we’re going to throw the ball inside a lot. … I’ll be the 10th guy. I’m not going to play but I’ll be the locker room guy to make sure that everything is running smoothly.”
Leave it to a coach to not only list the starting five, but also his gameplan for the team. Of course with Shaq and Kareem on the floor, throwing the ball inside would seem to be a pretty obvious plan.
You add Magic being there to set everyone up for easy baskets, West spreading the floor with his ridiculous shooting, and Kobe doing everything that Kobe does and Walton’s team is pretty much unstoppable.
It is the beauty of the Lakers franchise that you could leave out the likes of Wilt Chamberlain, James Worthy, and Elgin Baylor and still put together a squad like this. In the end, it’s gonna be hard to top Walton’s choices.
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