The Lakers will retire the No. 21 jersey of Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Cooper Monday evening as they resume play at Crypto.com Arena following postponements of two games by the NBA due to the Los Angeles-area wildfires.
Cooper will be honored throughout the game against the San Antonio Spurs. His jersey will be raised into the arena’s rafters at Crypto.com Arena and officially retired by the organization during an extended halftime, according to the team.
The ceremony will feature a tribute video honoring his legacy and impact, as well as remarks.
“That’s going to be the one that really hits home emotionally because as we go through this life and you play basketball, we always want to leave something for our kids and our grandkids,” Cooper said in a statement. “Wherever basketball is going to be played in LA, that jersey will always be up there.”
Cooper was drafted by the Lakers in the third round of the 1978 NBA draft, the 60th overall selection, out of New Mexico but played just three games as a rookie in the 1978-79 season because of a knee injury sustained while playing in the Southern California Summer Pro Basketball League.
Cooper rarely started during his 12-season NBA career, all with the Lakers, but was selected to the NBA’s all-defensive first team five times, and won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award in 1987.
Cooper made 94 regular-season starts over the final nine seasons of his career. The NBA began keeping track of games started in the 1981-82 season.
The 6-foot-7-inch, 170-pound Cooper was known for his tenacious defense, usually drawing the opponent’s toughest scorer. His battles with Boston Celtics’ star Larry Bird during the teams’ three meetings in the NBA Finals were particularly memorable, and Bird once said Cooper was the toughest defender he played against.
Cooper, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were the only players to play on all five of the Lakers’ 1980s championships.