Eight-time All-Defensive Team Lakers swingman Michael Cooper believes that two of his Showtime-era Lakers teammates, together with a slightly more contemporary Los Angeles star, should make the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Cooper, a 6-foot-7 shooting guard who won five championships with the Purple and Gold from 1978-90, recently chatted with Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson on Scoop B Radio about a variety of intriguing topics, including his induction into the 2024 Hall of Fame class.
The 1987 Defensive Player of the Year, who won five titles with L.A., thinks these fellow Lakers champs deserve Springfield consideration.
“I think [former Lakers starting shooting guard] Byron Scott, [ex-All-Star Lakers combo guard] Norm Nixon should definitely be in there, hopefully they will be considered there in the future. [Former Lakers stretch four] Robert Horry, one of the players.
“You know what I found out that the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame isn’t about what you did on the court most of the time; it is but it’s your contribution to the game. Giving back to the game in any form or fashion.”
Horry won three titles with Los Angeles from 2000-2002, and today serves as a studio analyst for the Lakers’ home cable broadcast network, Spectrum SportsNet. He also was a critical floor-spacing contributor on four other title teams, with the Houston Rockets in 1994-95 and the San Antonio Spurs in 2005 and 2007.
“It took me just time,” the 68-year-old Cooper said of his belated selection to the Hall of Fame.
“You got to get nominated to be on that list and once you get on the list hopefully they’ll pick him,” Cooper said of Horry.
In his 873 regular season bouts with the Lakers, Cooper averaged 8.9 points on 46.9 percent shooting from the floor and 83.3 percent shooting from the foul line, 4.2 assists, 3.2 rebounds, 1.2 steals, and 0.6 rejections a night.
During that Lakers stint, Cooper finished fourth in Sixth Man of the Year voting three times, and finished among the top 24 vote recipients in MVP voting twice.
Among the players he mentioned, Nixon is the only one to have made an All-Star team, though Scott was more critical to those title-winning Lakers clubs on balance.
Horry’s prolific titles, accrued as a key role player in each circumstance, make him a unique prospect for consideration, although he was very much a role player and not ever a star.
