5 strange players you forgot played for the Los Angeles Lakers

2. Glen Rice and Elden Campbell

Elden Campbell arrived in Los Angeles at Showtime’s twilight, and in a cruel twist of fate was jettisoned to make way for the Lake Show.

Glen Rice was drafted by the Miami Heat long before Pat Riley warped the team in the Lakers’ image.

Campbell improved every year he was in the league, stretching his averages ever farther and further until he either hit his glass ceiling or a roadblock named Shaquille O’Neal. Campbell was never going to be Horace Grant; he was too talented. But he also wasn’t going to be Rasheed Wallace or Kevin Garnett. He wasn’t exactly the new breed of power forward, and he wasn’t really the bruising enforcer either. He wasn’t even Robert Horry. He was Elden Campbell, and like his name, he was just sort of good enough in a way that always promised more.

The more was Glen Rice.

Whether playing for the Miami Heat or the Charlotte Hornets, Rice could roast a defense. His shooting peaked in the 1996-97 season, which means so did his snarling grimace. He was like Kobe in that way, observing his own achievements with an odd twist of pleasure and pain.

It would be unfair to say Campbell was traded directly for Rice. It would be more honest to say Eddie Jones was traded for Rice and Campbell for J.R. Reid. By the way, J.R. Reid is also a forgotten Laker. But Eddie Jones seems more memorable than Campbell in the sense that he was the better basketball player. He would prove that upon their arrival in Charlotte. He would prove that eventually in his value to Miami. Campbell would always be lost in the shuffle of the big man rotation.

He would, however, win his ring as a member of the 2003-04 Detroit Pistons. He would play 68 minutes in the NBA Finals against his original team. He would back up the likes of Rasheed and Ben Wallace. He would play a role in the downfall of the dynasty his departure helped create.

The 2003-04 Lakers team is one of the more memorable teams to lose a Finals. For one thing, throughout the season, Kobe Bryant traveled back and forth between Los Angeles and Colorado, dealing with sexual assault allegations. On another note, the season would be the last in which Shaq and Kobe played as teammates. And lastly, the team included the likes of Gary Payton and Karl Malone. While both players made major contributions throughout the season, they were desperately chasing rings. They did not succeed (although Payton would snag one as a member of the Miami Heat two years later). And yet the Laker tenure of either player is probably more well-remembered than the tenure of Glen Rice.

The former Michigan Wolverine is never thought of as a Laker, but he only played one less season in Los Angeles than he did in Charlotte. And maybe he’s something of a mercenary, but he seems less mercenary than either Payton or Malone. He also succeeded at being on the winning side where they did not.

Rice started in 80 regular-season games and 23 playoff games for the 1999-00 Lakers. He was third in minutes played behind only Shaq and Kobe, and he was the team’s third-leading scorer in both the regular season and the playoffs. Given he only played two seasons with the franchise, it is understandable that other players on that year’s roster are all better remembered as Lakers. Derek Fisher, Rick Fox, Devean George, Tyronn Lue, and Brian Shaw have all given more sweat to the franchise, but few of those players ever compiled as large of a season’s workload as Rice did during that first Shaq and Kobe title. If he hadn’t been wearing purple and gold, would Ron Harper alone have made the difference between Los Angeles and Indiana? The answer is probably not.