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.

Midway through the 1992-93 season, the Lakers traded Sam Perkins, who, at the time, was their best player, to the Seattle SuperSonics for center Benoit Benjamin and rookie guard Doug Christie. The trade sparked a long-term rebuilding project for them, but they wouldn’t get much immediate value from that trade.

Benjamin continued to be what he had been during his seven previous seasons — a bust — while Christie was slow to develop with Los Angeles. In two seasons with L.A., Christie averaged 9.3 points in 21 minutes a game while shooting 43.3% from the field and 31.3% from 3-point range.

The team traded him to the New York Knicks just prior to the start of the 1994-95 regular season. He was then moved to the Toronto Raptors midway through the following campaign before being sent to the Sacramento Kings in 2000.

It was in Sacramento where Christie truly emerged as a useful player. He became a tenacious defender and a good 3-point shooter, and he was a consistent starter for the Kings during his four seasons and change there. While the Kings quickly became championship contenders once Christie joined them, there was one team they simply couldn’t beat when it mattered most in order to win it all.

Ironically, that team was the Lakers, who swept Sacramento in the 2001 Western Conference semifinals and edged Christie’s crew in a classic Game 7 of the 2002 Western Conference finals in Sacramento.

Christie became an assistant coach for the Kings in 2021, and early last season, he was named their head coach after Mike Brown was fired.