Los Angeles Lakers: The 10 worst trades in franchise history
8. Trading Adrian Dantley to the Utah Jazz for Spencer Haywood
The Los Angeles Lakers trading away Adrian Dantley makes the list because they traded him way too soon before he had a chance to develop into a star for them. Dantley eventually became a six-time All-Star in the league and the guy they got in return for him, Spencer Haywood, only lasted one season with the team.
To make this deal look even worse, Haywood was ultimately dismissed from the Lakers during the 1980 NBA Finals for apparently falling asleep during practice because he had become addicted to cocaine.
This trade would rank higher on the list, but there was good reason to try to trade for Haywood at the time of this trade because they were in win-now mode. Haywood had won rookie of the year and MVP in his lone season in the ABA in 1970, and he was a four-time All-Star in the NBA after that, so he had proven more in his career than Dantley had at the time.
In HBO’s new show ‘Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty’ that depicts the Lakers’ Showtime era, they recreate the year that Haywood joined the team. They show Jerry West’s excitement at the potential of landing Haywood and the hesitancy the Lakers had before trading for him because of his troublemaker label.
He got that reputation from taking the NBA to court so he could come out of college early and play professionally. The show also portrays Haywood’s robust personality and personal issues that ultimately led to his downfall with the team.
While this was going on, Dantley was fresh off of his first All-Star appearance as a new member of the Utah Jazz. He went on to make five more All-Star teams with them, and the Jazz eventually retired Dantley’s number four jersey and that should say everything about how well he played for them after the Lakers traded him there.
Dantley even led the league in scoring for a couple of seasons while he was with the Jazz and his career average of 24.3 point per game is one of the best of all time. This trade could arguably rank higher on the list because it is one of the only instances where the Lakers traded away a future hall of fame player.
It was not like Dantley’s emergence into an all-star came out of nowhere either, he already showed major potential as the rookie of the year in 1977 as a member of the Buffalo Braves. With the Lakers, most of that potential was overshadowed by star players at other positions, but he could have been a big scorer for the Showtime era Lakers if they had just given him a bigger role.
This trade does not rank higher on the list because it did not take the Los Angeles Lakers out of title contention. The Lakers ended up winning four championships in the 1980s after this deal, and Dantley never won an NBA title, he even got traded from the Bad Boys Pistons before they won their back-to-back championships.