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Los Angeles Lakers: Top 30 greatest players of all-time

By Ben Beecken

LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 13: Kobe Bryant #24 of the Los Angeles Lakers reacts in the first half while taking on the Utah Jazz at Staples Center on April 13, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 13: Kobe Bryant #24 of the Los Angeles Lakers reacts in the first half while taking on the Utah Jazz at Staples Center on April 13, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /
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Los Angeles Lakers, Rick Fox
19 Jan 1998: Rick Fox of the Los Angeles Lakers during the Lakers 92-89 win over the Orlando Magic at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, California. /

. Small Forward. Los Angeles Lakers. Rick Fox. 27. player. 20

  • 7 seasons with Lakers (1997-2004)
  • Averaged 8.7 points and 3.8 rebounds per game
  • 3x NBA champion with Lakers

Rick Fox never resembled anything close to a star, but he was one of the most important role players on all three of the Kobe-Shaq back-to-back-to-back title teams.

He began his career in Boston as the 24th overall draft pick in 1991, spending six seasons with the Celtics before rounding out his career with seven campaigns in L.A.

Fox only averaged double-digits in scoring once in his Lakers career, and that was in his very first season in L.A., back in 1997-98. He started all 82 games that year, playing 33 minutes per game and pulling down 4.4 rebounds and dishing out 3.4 assists per game. That Lakers team won 61 games before being swept by Karl Malone, John Stockton and the Utah Jazz in the conference finals.

But the next year, Fox shifted to the bench in the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, when the Lakers lost in the second round of the playoffs.

He was a bench player again in 1999-2000, the first year of the Lakers’ three-year run of greatness. Fox then jumped back into the starting lineup, starting 159 of 164 games over the next two seasons, both of which ended in the Lakers hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy.

Fox ended his career in L.A., playing through the 2003-04 season and mostly remaining as a starter. Playing alongside Kobe, and, for much of his career with the Lakers, Shaquille O’Neal, meant that Fox was never a focal point of the offense, and mostly existed as a spot-up 3-point shooter, albeit an extremely average one, hitting at a 34.5 percent clip in his career in a Lakers uniform.

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