The Los Angeles Lakers have a total of 506 players playing for them throughout the 2024-25 season, going back to their days in Minneapolis. Some are forgettable, some are serviceable, some are good, and some are downright legendary.
In the 80th season of the Lakers franchise, founded in 1946 as the Detroit Gems, LeBron Wire is taking a look at every player who has worn one of their uniforms, whether it’s the purple and gold or those from their early days in the Midwest.
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Milt Wagner played five seasons of college basketball at the University of Louisville, helping the school reach the Final Four three times and the NCAA Championship Game in 1986. He was selected by the Dallas Mavericks in the second round of the 1986 draft, and after spending the 1986-87 season in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA), he joined the Lakers in the 1987-88 season.
That season, he played in 40 regular season games, averaging 3.8 points and 1.5 assists in 9.5 minutes per game. The 6-foot-5 guard won an NBA championship ring with the Purple and Gold that June.
Wagner returned to the CBA the following season and played in Israel during the 1989-90 season before returning to the United States for the 1990-91 season, appearing in 13 games for the Miami Heat. That was enough for his NBA career, but he played basketball for a few more years, as he played in the CBA and Global Basketball Association, as well as in Paris, Israel and Germany.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: No. 20 in Lakers Jersey History — Milt Wagner