Three Lakers That Should Have Done the 3-Point Contest
Nick Young is only the fourth player in Lakers history to compete in the 3-point contest. Here are three other players we think should have participated.
Nick Van Exel (1998)
The summer of 1996 was a big one for the Los Angeles Lakers. That summer, they signed Shaquille O’Neal to a seven-year deal worth up to $121 million and traded Vlade Divac for the No. 13 pick in the 1996 draft, Kobe Bean Bryant. Shaq and Kobe would join 25-year-old Nick Van Exel, who was making a name for himself in Los Angeles before the future Hall of Famers came to town.
The Lakers drafted Van Exel with the No. 37 pick in the 1993 draft and he quickly became a fan favorite in Los Angeles. His rookie season, he averaged 13.6 points, 5.8 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game earning him All-Rookie honors as a second round pick. Sound familiar? It should.
Van Exel was one of seven players drafted in 1993 to make an All-Star game. The other guys? Chris Webber, Penny Hardaway, Jamal Mashburn, Vin Baker, Allan Houston and Sam Cassell. The Lakers, who picked No. 12, just missed out on Houston, who was drafted No. 11 by the Detroit Pistons. But hey, George Lynch wasn’t so bad!
After missing the playoffs his rookie season, Nick at Nite led the Lakers back into the playoffs alongside Divac and Cedric Ceballos. The Lakers made the playoffs every year for the next 10 seasons.
Unfortunately, the closest Van Exel would ever get to a championship ring was in 1998, when the Utah Jazz swept the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. That year, Van Exel was named an All-Star and was one of the best 3-point shooters in the NBA.
Of players attempting at least 4.9 three-pointers a game, Van Exel was third in 3-point percentage (38.9), only trailing Wesley Person and Tracy Murray, who led the NBA in 3-point percentage in 1994. He should have been a participant in the 1998 3-point contest.
Not only was he one of the best 3-point shooters in the league at the time, but he was already in New York for the All-Star game! He would have given Jeff Hornacek, who won the the contest, a run for his money.