Los Angeles Lakers greatest scorers: 16. Happy Hairston
In the early 1970s, the Lakers were in a bit of a transition period between two separate eras of greatness as they were moving on at the end of the careers of Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, and Elgin Baylor and leading into the era led by Kareem and then Magic. During that time, though, forward Happy Hairston was one of the scoring leaders for the Lakers, which earns him this spot in these rankings.
Hairston spent six seasons with the Lakers, playing in 394 games with the organization. He fell just short of scoring 6,000 points with the organization (5,993) and averaged a solid 15.2 points per game during his time spent with the team. Moreover, the forward was efficient in getting buckets as Hairston shot 48.2 percent from the floor over the six years he played in Los Angeles.
Hairston came around for the Lakers in an admittedly strange time for the franchise where stars were at the end of their runs as elite NBA players and before Kareem came around to alter the team tremendously. However, his productivity over that time can’t be ignored. He is 100 percent deserving of kicking off the top-half of these rankings as one of the greatest scorers in the Lakers’ illustrious history.