Among those with a chance to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame are former-Laker Michael Cooper, former-Clipper and UCLA Bruin Marques Johnson and former Los Angeles Spark coach Marianne Stanley. Cooper made the list in 2021, as well.
The final 16-member HOF squad will be announced in New Orleans on April 2 at the NCAA Men’s Final Four.
Cooper’s roots are almost entirely Los Angeles. He was born in the city in 1956, and would go on to play basketball for Pasadena High School and later Pasadena City College before transferring to the University of New Mexico. After spending two years in New Mexico, he was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers in the third round of the 1978 NBA Draft.
He would go on to spend the next 12 years with the franchise as a key part of the Showtime Era of Lakers Basketball, winning five NBA Championships over the span. He was also named to eight NBA All-Defensive Teams, five of which were First-Team nods. He was also named the 1987 NBA Defensive Player of the Year.
Submitted by the Culver City Unified School District
