Michael Cooper spent his total profession with the Los Angeles Lakers as a defense-minded guard who at all times centered on serving to his Showtime teammates to be stars.
When the Lakers raised Cooper’s No. 21 to the rafters on Monday evening, Cooper relished his long-awaited flip to be within the highlight.
The 17-time NBA champion Lakers honored Cooper in a halftime ceremony during their game against the San Antonio Spurs, unveiling his No. 21 jersey on the wall of honor at their downtown enviornment between Magic Johnson’s No. 32 and James Worthy’s No. 42.
It is an applicable place for Cooper, who served because the hardworking glue man on the glamorous, thrilling groups that received 5 NBA championships within the Eighties.
“That is so overwhelming to me, as a result of I by no means anticipated this in any respect,” the 68-year-old Cooper stated. “I at all times performed for the love of the sport, and the workforce, and profitable championships. Tonight is, to me, extra particular than the Corridor of Fame — however each of them are equally necessary.”
Michael Cooper’s No. 21 jersey now hangs between Magic Johnson’s No. 32 and James Worthy’s No. 42. (Photograph by Allen Berezovsky/Getty Pictures)
Cooper continues to be wildly well-liked in his native Los Angeles space, as evidenced by the standing ovations and serenades of “Coooooooooop” given to him all through the evening. The Lakers gave a Cooper duplicate jersey to each fan at their downtown enviornment for their first game since wildfires devastated the Los Angeles space.
The quantity retirement coincidentally occurred on an already emotional evening for the Lakers and their followers after their two earlier video games have been postponed due to the catastrophic wildfires. Cooper is a Pasadena native who additionally lived in next-door Altadena, which has been devastated by the hearth originating in Eaton Canyon.
“It is form of a happy-sad second for me,” Cooper stated. “Lots of the landmarks, a few the center colleges I went to, these are all gone now. Tonight I will take pleasure in it, however with a heavy coronary heart as a result of so many individuals misplaced so many issues.”
Cooper was enshrined within the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame final October, 33 years after his final NBA sport. The Lakers solely retire the numbers of Corridor of Famers, they usually rapidly introduced Cooper would be part of a number of the most necessary gamers in basketball historical past among the many franchise’s honored gamers.
Cooper was by no means an All-Star, however he was a Eighties model of the 3-and-D specialists which have change into a significant a part of any NBA workforce within the twenty first century. He was a five-time choice for the All-Defensive first workforce, and he was named the NBA’s Defensive Participant of the Yr in 1987.
“I at all times tried to play the sport the proper method,” Cooper stated. “It is such a superb feeling that individuals acknowledge that. Though I’ve at all times been on a workforce with plenty of megastars, generally I obtained overshadowed. However that did not trouble me, as a result of it was at all times in regards to the physique of labor that we have been placing collectively, and profitable championships.”
Cooper went on to an extended teaching profession after leaving the Lakers, most notably main the Los Angeles Sparks to 2 WNBA championships.
Cooper was joined on courtroom for the halftime ceremony by former Lakers coach Pat Riley and a number of other former Lakers teammates, together with Johnson, Worthy, Byron Scott, Norm Nixon, Jamaal Wilkes, Kurt Rambis and Vlade Divac.
Johnson took the microphone first, calling Cooper “one of many biggest gamers to ever play the sport of basketball.”
Reporting by The Related Press.
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