The Lakers' defensive specialist was more than that. 'If we don’t have Coop, we don’t win those series,' former Lakers teammate Byron Scott said of five titles.
On April 1, around 9:15 a.m., Michael Cooper’s phone rang with the news that he finally had been elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He was sitting next to his wife, Yvonne, both of them listening. Yet as he heard the words being delivered about one of the highest honors in basketball, Cooper had his doubts. His former Lakers teammate Magic Johnson had been lobbying for years to get Cooper into the Hall of Fame and it had never happened.
So, when the draft came, I really believe had Chicago not drafted Marvin, the Lakers would have taken Marvin and I probably would have ended up somewhere else. But Chicago drafted Marvin in the second round and then in the third round I was there. That goes back to show how diligent Jerry was as far as his scouting and his viewing of players. I guess he liked my length, I was defensive-minded, and I’m glad things worked out the way they did.” Cooper averaged 8.9 points, 4.2 assists and 1.
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