Through the 2024-25 season, the Los Angeles Lakers have had a total of 506 players suit up for them, going back to their days in Minneapolis. Some were forgettable, some were serviceable, some were good and a select few were flat-out legendary.
As the Lakers approach their 80th season of existence (they were founded back in 1946 as the Detroit Gems in the National Basketball League), LeBron Wire is taking a look at each player who has worn their jersey, whether it has been a purple and gold one or the ones they donned back in the Midwest during their early years.
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Here, we take a look at Rory Sparrow, who played for the Lakers in the early 1990s.
Sparrow was a fourth-round draft pick by the New Jersey Nets out of Villanova University back in 1980. A 6-foot-2 guard, he didn’t score a lot of points, but he was known as a reliable ball-handling backcourt player.
He played for a number of teams in his first 11 seasons, including the Nets and New York Knicks. He started the 1991-92 campaign with the Chicago Bulls, but they waived him in late November, paving the way for the Lakers to sign him for the rest of the season.
In 42 games with Los Angeles, he averaged 3.0 points and 1.9 assists in 11.2 minutes a game while shooting 39.9% from the field. It was the team’s first season without Magic Johnson, and with an aging roster that lacked Johnson, not to mention the “it” factor he brought, L.A. lost in the first round of the NBA playoffs to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Following that playoff defeat, Sparrow retired from the NBA.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers jersey history No. 2 — Rory Sparrow