Through the 2024-25 season, the Los Angeles Lakers have had a total of 506 players suit up for them, going back to their days in Minneapolis. Some were forgettable, some were serviceable, some were good and a select few were flat-out legendary.
During the Lakers’ 80th season of existence (they were founded back in 1946 as the Detroit Gems in the National Basketball League), LeBron Wire is taking a look at each player who has worn their jersey, whether it has been a purple and gold one or the ones they donned back in the Midwest during their early years.
Milt Wagner played five seasons of college basketball at the University of Louisville, and he helped the school get to the Final Four three times and reach the NCAA championship game in 1986. He was a second-round draft pick by the Dallas Mavericks in 1986, and after spending the 1986-87 season in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA), he joined the Lakers for the 1987-88 campaign.
That season, he appeared in 40 regular-season games, averaging 3.8 points and 1.5 assists in 9.5 minutes a game. The 6-foot-5 guard earned an NBA championship ring that June with the Purple and Gold.
Wagner returned to the CBA the following season and spent the 1989-90 season playing in Israel before returning to the States for the 1990-91 season to appear in 13 games with the Miami Heat. That would do it as far as his NBA career, but he played several more years of basketball, as he had stints in the CBA and the Global Basketball Association, as well as in Paris, Israel and Germany
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers jersey history No. 20 — Milt Wagner
