Lakers: Five superstars the Lakers acquired past their prime
By Jason Reed
Gary Payton and Karl Malone (2003-2004)
At one point, the Los Angeles Lakers had four future Hall of Famer and four legends all on the same team. Each of the four, Kobe Bryant, O’Neal, Karl Malone and Gary Payton will go down as a top five (maybe top 10 in Payton’s case) player in their position. Despite so much star power on one-team however, the Lakers were unable to win their fourth consecutive NBA Championship.
The problem not only was the tension between the two previous superstars Kobe and Shaw, but they also acquired Malone and Payton far past their primes. Both players only played one season in LA, and for Malone, it was his last in the league.
The Mailman will go down as one of the best power forwards to ever play alongside the likes of Tim Duncan. In 18 seasons with the Utah Jazz Malone averaged 25.4 points, 10.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game. Only Abdul-Jabbar has scored more points than Malone in NBA history with the next best power forward, Dirk Nowitzki, trailing Malone by over 6000 points.
As for Payton, the Glove was a staple of a great Seattle SuperSonics squad. Payton averaged 18.2 points, 7.4 assists and 2.1 steals per game in Seattle. He is fourth all-time in steals.
The duo was not terrible in Los Angeles though. Combined, the two averaged 27.8 points, 12.9 rebounds and 9.0 assists per game. However, this was still a shell of the duo’s former selves, who before would score near that many points alone.