Los Angeles Lakers: 10 best point guards in team history
By Ed Schrenzel
No. 7: Lucius Allen
Lucius is the third former UCLA point guard to be mentioned here. As a Bruin, he teamed with the legendary Lew Alcindor to guide the team to two NCAA titles and an overall magnificent 59-1 won-lost record.
In his 6th NBA season, he returned to LA to play for the Lakers in 1974 and was joined there a year later by Alcindor, who by then of course had changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Although they had won a title together in Milwaukee, the duo didn’t experience nearly the same level of success in LA as pros as they had as collegians.
The team missed the playoffs entirely in Allen’s first two seasons (the second one with Kareem), and although they compiled the best record in the Western Conference his third year, they lost to the streaking Portland Trail Blazers in the conference finals.
Lucius was known for his quickness (his nickname was “The Jackrabbit”) and his smooth jump shot and was regarded as an excellent teammate. He had a solid 3-year Lakers career, scoring a career-high 19.5 PPG in his first season, and overall averaging 16 points, 5.1 assists and 1.6 steals.