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.
During the Lakers’ 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.
Channing Frye, a seven-footer who played both power forward and center, had a long and productive 13-season career in the NBA. He started out in the 2005-06 season with the New York Knicks, but he’s perhaps best known for the couple of seasons he spent with LeBron James on the Cleveland Cavaliers.
He was traded to the Cavaliers midway through the 2015-16 campaign, and he won an NBA championship with them that year. Frye was then sent to the Lakers, along with Isaiah Thomas and a 2018 first-round draft pick, during the 2017-18 season.
In nine games with L.A. that year, he averaged 5.8 points in 16.7 minutes a game. He then returned to Cleveland the following year before calling it quits.
Frye retired from the league with career averages of 8.7 points and 4.5 rebounds in 22.2 minutes a game while hitting 38.8% of his 3-point attempts.