All time Best 5 Full time Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers have been like the Yankees of NBA. They have been getting the pick of the free agents and have built Championship teams consistently. The frustrations and rants from other team's fan bases tends to hide the fact that they have also drafted and trained home grown players.

So, on the occasion of one year of Kobe Bryant's retirement, here are the top 5 players who were lifetime Los Angeles Lakers. I have sorted them by height because they make a great team in their own right.

Jerry West
Elgin Baylor
Kobe Bryant
Magic Johnson
James Worthy

If you consider Minnesota Lakers, then George Mikan replaces James Worthy and Vern Mikkelsen will be an honorable mention.

What is it with the Lakers that they have not managed to draft a great center comparable to the list above and keep needing free agents? Most of the hatred for them stems from their acquisitions via trade or free agency. The great centers they get from other teams fuel the fanbase anguish of the team they come from.

Complementary list of the best centers they have snagged from other teams.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Shaquille O'Neal
Wilt Chamberlain
Pau Gasol

The best home grown centers were Vlade Divac , Andrew Bynum Jerome Henderson, and Elden Campbell who all got traded out.

The inclusion of only four may be a surprise. Players like Mychal Thompson, Mel Counts, and Dwight Howard are honorable mentions who did not play long enough as a Laker to impact this team.