Awestruck by His Skyhook, Michael Cooper Recalls His First Encounter With Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

From Jerry West and Elgin Baylor in the 1960s all the way to LeBron James and Luka Doncic today, every era of NBA history has had an exciting chapter of LA Lakers history. Many will cite the Shaq-Kobe years as the franchise’s peak, but it’s also tough to argue with the ’80s Showtime era.

The seeds of Showtime were actually planted in the mid-’70s when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was traded to L.A. Four years later, Dr. Jerry Buss bought the team and drafted Magic Johnson with the first overall pick, and the rest was history.

Michael Cooper was an vitally important part of those Showtime Lakers teams, a defensive dynamo who made the All-Defensive First or Second Team every year from 1981-88. He played his entire career in L.A., winning five titles and eventually being inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Long before all those accolades, and before the advent of Showtime, Cooper was a third-round rookie out of New Mexico, just hoping to make the team. In a recent interview with VladTV, he recalled what it was like walking in to Lakers training camp for the first time.

“We used to have training camp at Loyola Marymount,” he said, “and I remember going in and walking in the gym. If you look at Loyola now it is so beautiful because they’ve redone it, but back then it used to be just a gym.”

“I walked in and I saw Kareem Abdul-Jabbar shooting sky hooks, I saw Jamaal Wilkes over on the side practicing free throws and Norm Nixon was shooting,” he recalled.

Cooper was a newly-minted professional by this point, but you can forgive him for being awestruck at seeing one of the greatest players of all-time practicing the most famous and unstoppable shot in basketball history just a few feet away. As he stopped and stared in wonder, the big man snapped him back to reality.

“I was just staring at Kareem, and I’m standing there and Kareem goes, ‘Hey rookie, what you looking at?’ I couldn’t even answer! He says stop looking at me, get your a** in there and get your gear on, we’re getting ready to practice. That was the beginning of my introduction to Kareem,” he fondly recalled.

That was the beginning of a wonderful partnership. Not only did the two win five rings together, Cooper says they became best friends. Their birthdays are even just one day apart, so maybe it was meant to be.

Cooper and Kareem’s friendship lives on to this day, but all good things on a basketball court must come to an end. Kareem eventually retired in 1989. Pat Riley left a year later, and Cooper retired in 1991. Magic followed later that year, and James Worthy called it a career in 1994. Long after they played their last game, the Showtime Lakers still endure as one of the most iconic teams of all time.