The Los Angeles Lakers do not retire many numbers, they have 7 officially retired and 5 which are unofficially retired of which 4 can still be worn. One of the numbers retired is that of Gail Goodrich. One of the most successful college players ever and one of the most underrated NBA players of all-time. Goodrich’s career at UCLA is one of the greatest in the schools storied past. He was part of the 1964 and 1965 NCAA championship teams, in the 1965 championship game he scored a than record 44 points to beat Michigan. He is widely regarded as one of the top 5 all-time UCLA players along with Reggie Miller, Sidney Wicks, Marques Johnson and Lew Alcindor(Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). After three years at UCLA Goodrich went pro and was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers with their territorial draft selection. Goodrich’s first years with the Lakers where not that good. He was mainly a role player on a team loaded with talented guards such as Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. By his third year he had become a rotational player averaging 14 points a game.

Goodrich played two very good seasons with the Suns before they traded him back to the Lakers. In his second stint with the Lakers Goodrich became a star and is more remembered for this time. In 1972 he helped the Lakers win the NBA title, their first since moving to Los Angeles.

The Lakers became a near dynasty in the early 70s behind Goodrich, West, Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain. From 1972 until 1975 Goodrich would be selected to play in 4 consecutive all-star games and average 22 or more points in each of those seasons.

He began to decline in the 75-76 season and his scoring fell below 20 points a game. The following season he signed a 1.4 million dollar contract with the New Orleans Jazz. This decision would have one of the largest impacts in NBA history. The Jazz where forced to give the Lakers a first round pick as compensation for signing Goodrich. The first round picked ended up being the #1 overall pick in 1979 which the Lakers used on Magic Johnson. The Lakers would go on to win 5 NBA championships while the Jazz were forced to move to Salt Lake City.

Goodrich’s three years with the Jazz were some of his worst. He never lived up to expectation and with the exception of the 77-78 season in which they won a than team high 39 games, the team was terrible. With relocation to Salt Lake City looming Goodrich retired in 1979. Goodrich owns career averages of 21 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists in 1,031 games played.

Today Goodrich is the manager of a golf course in Connecticut and works occasional for NBATV.

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