Lakers News: LA Great Talks '90s Rebuild, Early Kobe Bryant Years
Your Los Angeles Lakers found themselves out in the wilderness a bit during the mid-1990s, with their Showtime stars (aside from A.C. Green) all retiring and the Chicago Bulls and Houston Rockets running roughshod over the rest of the league.
Into this era emerged two key All-Stars who helped turn around LA's misfortune and improved the club into being at least competitive in the Western Conference.
I'm not talking about Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, although they got involved later. Before that dynamic duo even touched down in LA, the foundation of the new-look Lakers was eventual All-Star guards Nick Van Exel and Eddie Jones.
Van Exel was a flashy, 6'1" point guard who flew under the radar a bit ahead of the 1993 NBA draft. LA selected him with the No. 37 pick overall out of the University of Cincinnati.
Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson of Bally Sports caught up with Van Exel, and the two spoke about his tenure with LA and the early years of a certain five-time champ.
"So I got there the year after they lost to Phoenix (in the first round)," Van Exel noted. "They went up 2-0, and they lost the next three. So I came in the next year, and, of course, we broke the streak of the Lakers making the playoffs."
"So that kind of sucked, and then they made some moves and got Eddie (Jones) and Cedric Ceballos. So that kind of got us back into the playoffs and got the Laker name back on again."
Van Exel touched on eventual his 18-time All-Star teammate before the Black Mamba was more than a scrawny 18-year-old.
"Kobe was like … he was determined, man," Van Exel began. "He was so far ahead of himself, and he was way more mature than we were, you know? As far as like, thinking 10-15 years down the line — like, Kobe knew that he wanted to be an NBA champion. He wanted to be one of the greatest. He wanted to leave a legacy. So him coming into the league and already thinking like that — and plus his work ethic on top of that — it was perfect for him just because he said those things."
"Some people can say it, but they don’t want to put in the work to accomplish it. He put in that damn work, and of course, he accomplished everything he got."
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