5 strange players you forgot played for the Los Angeles Lakers

1. Isaiah Rider

Isaiah Rider’s stint in Los Angeles was brief. Then again, his career was altogether brief. He played a total of nine seasons, including 563 regular-season games and 21 playoff games. None of those 21 playoff appearances occurred in a Lakers uniform. Phil Jackson‘s brain trust decided to leave him off the 2000-2001 playoff roster in favor of the younger and more trusted Devean George.

With 7.6 points per game that season, Rider had been the team’s leading scorer off the bench, but he was 29 and on his way out of not just Los Angeles but the league in general. The Lakers would send him a ring, and one can imagine him biting into it bitterly a la a Film Noir character played by Humphrey Bogart in some lost establishment full of shadows and intrigue, or as some 1980s sitcom bartender who avoids what’s best for him and chases names in a little black book. Rider was a thing of the past at an age when so many excellent wing scorers discover their primes.

In other words, he was always a bit more Timberwolf than Laker, a figure better seen on wild moonless nights and somehow lost in the glitz and the glam and the glow of the campfire.

Honorable Mention: Adam Morrison

Two seasons wearing purple and gold. Forty-two total games (including playoffs). Eighty-six points (including playoffs). Forty-five rebounds (including playoffs). Twenty-two assists (including playoffs).

And two rings.

People forget.

Cue “Eminence Front.”