Newsletter: Readers’ 25 greatest Lakers in franchise history

Welcome to another edition of our Lakers newsletter. My name is Houston Mitchell, filling in one time only for Dan Woike, who is busy watching the Lakers turn from horrible to great seemingly overnight.

To celebrate 75 years of the Lakers, we asked Times readers to send in their list of the top 10 Lakers in franchise history. And the ballots (6,272 of them) almost all started in similar fashion.

“Magic, Kobe, Kareem, West”

“Kobe, Magic, West, Kareem”

“Kareem, West, Magic, Kobe”

“West, Kareem, Kobe, Magic”

And after all the ballots were counted (first place on a ballot receiving 12 points, second place receiving nine, third place eight, etc.), there was a clear winner: Magic Johnson, who also won in the voting done by our panel of experts.

Let’s take a look at the top 25 as selected by our readers:

Other receiving votes, in order:

Slater Martin, A.C. Green, Mychal Thompson, Jim McMillian, Bill Sharman, Nick Van Exel, Happy Hairston, Walt Hazzard, Eddie Jones, Jeanie Buss, Vern Mikkelsen, Bill Bertka, Laker Girls, Alex Caruso, Dancing Barry, Ron Harper, Stu Lantz, Rudy LaRusso, Jack Nicholson, Jim Pollard, Gary Vitti and Russell Westbrook.

Players who made experts’ top 25 but not readers’: Vern Mikkelsen (13th), Slater Martin (17th), A.C. Green (20th), Clyde Lovelette (t22nd), Jim Pollard (t22nd), Happy Hairston (24th), Lamar Odom (25th).

So there you have it. Thanks to everyone who took the time to send in a ballot.

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