Los Angeles Lakers Retired Numbers
The Los Angeles Lakers have retired 11 numbers. Each one below records who wore it, the seasons they wore it, and what earned it a place in the rafters.
Back to Los Angeles LakersKobe Bryant
1996-2016
December 18, 2017. The Lakers played the Golden State Warriors at halftime of nothing in particular, and then the game stopped mattering. The lights dropped. Two banners climbed toward the Staples Center rafters at the same moment, side by side, and the building understood it was watching something that had never happened before in the history of the sport: a single franchise retiring two numbers for one man. #8 went up on the left. #24 went up on the right.
Why #8 was retiredWilt Chamberlain
1968-1973
The first thing to understand about Wilt Chamberlain is that the numbers are not exaggerations: a career 30.1 points and 22.9 rebounds per game, a 100-point game, a 55-rebound game. On July 9, 1968, the Lakers acquired him from Philadelphia at age 31, already owning virtually every individual scoring record in basketball but just one championship ring. Then the most prolific scorer in the game's history deliberately stopped scoring.
Why #13 was retiredElgin Baylor
1958-1972
Elgin Baylor's #22 was the first number the Los Angeles Lakers ever retired, on November 3, 1983 — honored not just for what he scored but for what he invented. Drafted first overall by the Minneapolis Lakers in 1958, Baylor's impact was immediate and existential: the franchise had gone 19-53 and was on the verge of folding, and owner Bob Short admitted it would have ceased to exist without him. He averaged 24.9 points and 15.0 rebounds as a rookie, took the game into the air, and once scored 71 points with 25 rebounds against the Knicks.
Why #22 was retiredKobe Bryant
1996-2016
December 18, 2017. The Lakers played the Golden State Warriors at halftime of nothing in particular, and then the game stopped mattering. The lights dropped. Two banners climbed toward the Staples Center rafters at the same moment, side by side, and the building understood it was watching something that had never happened before in the history of the sport: a single franchise retiring two numbers for one man. #8 went up on the left. #24 went up on the right.
Why #24 was retiredGail Goodrich
1965-1968, 1970-1976
The Los Angeles Lakers retired Gail Goodrich's #25 on November 20, 1996, and the case was built on a single unassailable fact: on the winningest team in NBA history, the 1971-72 Lakers of 69 wins and a 33-game winning streak, Goodrich scored more points than anyone else — not Wilt Chamberlain, not Jerry West. The 6'1", 170-pound guard averaged 25.9 points per game that season, ahead of West's 25.8 and Chamberlain's 14.8, shooting 48.7% from the field and 85.0% from the free throw line in an era without the three-point line.
Why #25 was retiredMagic Johnson
1979-1991, 1996
May 16, 1980. The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The Los Angeles Lakers lead the series three games to two, one win from a championship, and they have just lost the one man the whole season was built around. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — the league MVP, the most unstoppable scorer in basketball — has stayed home in Los Angeles with a sprained ankle. The conventional read is settled before tip-off: the Lakers steal what they can in Game 6, hope to survive, and bring the series back to the Forum for a Game 7 with their center healthy.
Why #32 was retiredKareem Abdul-Jabbar
1975-1989
June 9, 1985. The Boston Garden parquet, the building where the Los Angeles Lakers had been broken so many times that the floor itself felt like an opponent. Game 2 of the NBA Finals, one night after the Celtics had humiliated Los Angeles by 34 points in the opener — a result the press had already nicknamed the Memorial Day Massacre. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was 38 years old, and an entire sport had spent a year quietly agreeing he was finished.
Why #33 was retiredShaquille O'Neal
1996-2004
James Worthy
1982-1994
The Los Angeles Lakers retired James Worthy's #42 on December 10, 1995, because he embodied the franchise's championship DNA. Selected first overall in the 1982 Draft, Worthy played twelve seasons exclusively with the Lakers and won championships in 1985, 1987, and 1988, a top-three contributor in each title run. As the Showtime offense's primary wing finisher, his spinning layup off the break — absorbing contact, finishing with either hand — was a shot defenders knew was coming and could not stop.
Why #42 was retiredJerry West
1960-1974
April 29, 1970. Madison Square Garden. Game 3 of the NBA Finals, three seconds on the clock, and the Los Angeles Lakers trail the New York Knicks by two. Jerry West catches the inbounds pass a stride beyond his own free-throw line — roughly sixty feet from the rim he needs to reach — and does not hesitate. He takes one dribble, plants, and heaves the ball the length of the floor with the same upright, leaning form that a designer would soon trace into the most famous silhouette in basketball. The shot travels the entire court. It goes in.
Why #44 was retiredJamaal Wilkes
1977-1985
The Los Angeles Lakers retired Jamaal "Silk" Wilkes' #52 on December 6, 2012 — overdue by decades, which only emphasized the nature of his contribution. Wilkes had won a championship at every level before he turned 25: two consecutive NCAA titles at UCLA under John Wooden in 1972 and 1973, 1972-73 National Player of the Year, and an NBA championship and Rookie of the Year as a rookie with the Golden State Warriors in 1975.
Why #52 was retired
1 of these 11 numbers are still awaiting a full write-up.