Top 5 Lakers Small Forwards of All Time

5. Jim Pollard

Many of today’s Lakers fans have never heard of Pollard, who played in the 1940s and ’50s for the Minneapolis Lakers before the franchised moved to Los Angeles. Pollard was the sidekick of the first great center in NBA history, Mikan. They led the Lakers to five championships between 1948 and 1954. Pollard was selected to four All-Star teams along the way.

Pollard was a star athlete at Stanford and helped his team win the NCAA Championship in 1942. He entered the armed services during World War II before playing professionally in the Basketball Association of America (BAA) which was later merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) to form the NBA.

In 1952, Pollard was voted as the best player in the league by his peers during the short period of the award’s existence. He played in the NBA for six seasons before retiring. Pollard would go on to become a coach at the collegiate and professional levels.

Pollard averaged 12.9 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 3.3 assists in 385 NBA games. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978. He is also a member of the Stanford and Bay Area Halls of Fame.

The passage of time has rendered Pollard a mere footnote in history, but there was a day when he was considered one of the top players, if not the best, during the first decade of the NBA’s existence. He helped secure a future for the fledgling league and all the NBA players who followed.

Next: Robert Horry