The Los Angeles Lakers schedule for the 2024-25 season has officially been released, and of course, there will be a ton of attention paid to the squad’s biggest matchups against the likes of the Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics. But this year will also provide a significant moment for franchise legend Michael Cooper.
The Lakers are a franchise that only retires numbers of players when they make the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and that honor will finally be bestowed on Cooper this year. As such, the Lakers have announced that Cooper’s No. 21 jersey will be retired to the rafters of Crypto.com Arena on Jan. 13 when they host the San Antonio Spurs.
Cooper spent his entire 12-year NBA career with the Lakers and was absolutely crucial to the team’s success during the “Showtime” era of the 1980s. Cooper was the Lakers’ primary perimeter defender, always taking on the task of defending the opposition’s best player and being heralded as one of the best defensive players of his generation.
Cooper was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team five times and to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team three times while winning the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award in 1987. The Lakers made eight NBA Finals appearances and won five NBA Championships during that era, none of which would have been possible without everything Cooper brought to the table.
It does make sense that the Lakers will retire Cooper’s jersey when they take on perhaps the best overall defender in the league today in Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama. Of course, Lakers star Anthony Davis certainly has a claim to that title as well after the year he had last season, but Wembanyama finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting as a rookie, with many believing he should have won the award outright after leading the NBA in blocks by a large margin.
Lakers legend Michael Cooper believes Luka Doncic is ‘lazy’
Michael Cooper has never been afraid to speak his mind, and the Lakers legend recently did not hold back when discussing one of the NBA’s best players, Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic.
Cooper credited Doncic with his scoring abilities and for being a walking triple-double, but he called the Mavericks star ‘too slow’ and ‘lazy,’ adding that he feels Doncic doesn’t hustle back on defense, which obviously doesn’t sit well with a player like Cooper who made his career on that side of the ball.
The Lakers legend even went so far as to say he would cut Doncic if he wasn’t such a great scorer, which may be a step too far, but that’s his opinion.
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