In this ongoing series, we will take a trip to yesteryear to highlight some Los Angeles Lakers players whom some fans may have forgotten. These players didn’t get the billing that some others enjoyed, but they were very instrumental to the Lakers’ success.
Plenty of Lakers fans may remember Nick Van Exel, a plucky guard who played for them in the 1990s. However, to a certain extent, he has fallen through the cracks historically, and therefore, he may not get the credit he deserves for helping to revive the franchise during a difficult time.
Buy Lakers TicketsVan Exel helped get the Lakers back to respectability, and he kept the seat warm until they truly returned to greatness.
Van Exel helped plant the seeds for a Lakers revival
In 1993, the Lakers were going through a discordant and depressing time. Magic Johnson’s career definitely appeared over after he had tested positive for HIV, and they had barely qualified for the playoffs as the eighth seed the previous two seasons, only to lose in the first round.
At the time, it looked like they were in for a long and painful rebuilding process. That June, they took Van Exel with the No. 37 pick in the draft — the type of pick that is almost seen as a throwaway selection.
The point guard had shown enough promise at the University of Cincinnati to emerge as a possible high pick. But teams had concerns about his attitude, and thus he was still there for L.A. in the second round.
The team badly needed not just talent, but also a leader. In Van Exel’s first pro game, he showed he could become both. He scored 23 points on 9-of13 shooting and dished off eight assists in a win over the Phoenix Suns, the defending Western Conference champs and the team that eliminated the Lakers in the 1993 postseason.
Van Exel showed enough flashes of potential that year to be named to the All-Rookie Second Team. The Lakers missed the playoffs, and their prospects for the next several years looked bleak.
But Van Exel blossomed during the 1994-95 season, and not coincidentally, the team’s fortunes improved. He put up 16.9 points and 8.3 assists a game, but even more importantly, he became its leader, and he displayed plenty of moxie and grit.
In those days before Kobe Bryant, Van Exel became the Lakers’ designated go-to-guy in crunch time. Perhaps his most memorable game-winner that regular season came in L.A.’s final contest ever at the original Boston Garden.
Behind Van Exel’s mojo, the Lakers won 48 games and charged into the first round of the playoffs, where they upset the Seattle Supersonics behind his 34 points and seven 3-pointers in the decisive Game 4.
They then faced elimination in Game 5 of the next round against the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs, but Van Exel struck again with some more heroics to keep the Lakers alive.
In 1996, Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal came to the Southland, which meant Van Exel had to take a bit of a backseat. But he continued to be the team’s floor general while pumping up more clutch shots, and with his help, it became a championship contender.
Unfortunately, the Utah Jazz emerged as the Lakers’ own personal tormentors. Karl Malone and John Stockton’s squad ushered the Lakers out of the second round of the 1997 playoffs in five games, and it swept L.A. the following year in the Western Conference Finals.
By now, Van Exel’s fine play had been somewhat overshadowed by his somewhat prickly personality. He clashed with head coach Del Harris, who was very old school at a time when the NBA had definitely become new school.
The final straw came during a team practice prior to Game 4 against Utah in 1998. Lakers players brought their hands together in a huddle, and while everyone else yelled the standard “Lakers!” on three, Van Exel yelled “Cancun,” implying he had given up on the series and was ready for summer vacation.
Robert Horry, a key role player on that team, said the guard meant it as a joke to keep everyone loose. But O’Neal wasn’t laughing, as he suffered his fourth playoff sweep in just six pro seasons.
Once the Lakers were out of the postseason, executive Jerry West traded Van Exel to the Denver Nuggets, the NBA’s equivalent of an Iranian detention center back then, for Tony Battie and Tyronn Lue. It was like selling a perfectly good five-year-old Ford Taurus for a used lawn mower.
The guard would go on to have several more productive seasons. But it is fair to say he had his best years with the Lakers, as he not only put up good numbers with them, but he was also their leader.
Ultimately, Van Exel was the man who bridged the gap between the dark post-Johnson era and the glorious O’Neal/Bryant era.
