Los Angeles Lakers: Best trade in team history with the Sacramento Kings

The Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings have been trade partners four times.

In an ongoing series here at Lake Show Life, we are breaking down the best trade that the Los Angeles Lakers have ever made with every other NBA franchise. Today, we break down the best trade with their former playoff foes, the Sacramento Kings.

The Lakers and Kings are more remembered for their playoff battles in the early 2000s but the teams have been trade partners four times. It is not surprising to learn, however, that the two sides have not come together for a trade since 1977.

To find the greatest trade that the Lakers have ever made with the Kings, we have to go back even further to the days before the Lakers moved to Tinseltown.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ best ever trade with the Sacramento Kings:

Not only were the Los Angeles Lakers still in Minneapolis when this trade happened in April of 1957, but the Sacramento Kings were still the Rochester Royals. The following year they became the Cincinnati Royals.

In this trade, the Lakers traded an all-star big man who went on to be inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and got an array of players in return. While the Lakers did not get as talented of players in return, it was not a bad deal in the slightest.

Lovellette was very solid for the Royals but only played one season with the team and finished his career with the St. Louis Hawks and Boston Celtics.

RELATED: The best trade in team history with the Phoenix Suns

This trade came after the Lakers’ title stretch that birthed the team’s first five championships from 1949 to 1954. That could be interpreted as hurting the value of the trade, as the players acquired were not role players on a title-winning team, but they got solid role players nonetheless.

The best was Hot Rud Hundley, who wound up being a two-time all-star during his short six-year NBA career, all being spent with the Lakers. The only other player that stuck around longer than one season was Ed Fleming, who played 170 games with the Lakers and was a serviceable shooting guard.

This might not seem all that exciting and it isn’t, the Lakers and Kings have not really traded high-profile players and obviously have not even made a trade since the Kings were stationed in Kansas City.

However, at the end of the day, it still is the best trade that the Los Angeles Lakers have made with their Western Conference foes.