45. “Hot” Rod Hundley
Hot Rod Hundley spent his entire career with the Lakers organization. Unfortunately for him (and for the franchise) his entire career was only six seasons spent in the NBA as the guard’s knees gave out on him and prematurely ended his playing days when he was merely 28 years old. That doesn’t take away how impressive Hundley was over his time in Minneapolis and Los Angeles as he was part of the team making the move to the west coast.
After he had established himself and before his knees started to give way on him, Hundley enjoyed a two-year peak during which he showed an unbelievably amount of promise. The guard averaged 11.9 points, 4.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game from 1959-61 and was one of the leaders in the backcourts for those impressive teams. While saying that he shot 35.5 percent from the field over those two years might seem to lessen his production, that was more a byproduct of the era than anything else.
It’s unfortunate that Hot Rod’s career was cut short, but he would go on to do great things in the league in terms of broadcasting. As a player, though, he meant a great deal to the franchise and was unquestionably on his way to ranking much higher on this list than he does now.
Next: No. 44 Horace Grant