Los Angeles Lakers Top 10 Centers of All Time

(last updated on October 15, 2025)

With 17 NBA titles to their name, the Los Angeles Lakers are a franchise rich in history and talent. Since the start of the franchise in 1947 as the Minneapolis Lakers, over 30 Hall of Famers have suited up for the team. From Wilt Chamberlain to Shaquille O’Neal, a significant number of the great Lakers in history have been centers. Who do you think are the best Lakers centers of all time? Here’s our top 10.

Spending 14 seasons of his illustrious 19-season career in purple and gold, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar should be considered one of the best Lakers centers of all time by anyone and everyone. Abdul-Jabbar is second all-time in points scored among all NBA players and is the Lakers franchise leader in offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, two-point field goals and blocks. Abdul-Jabbar was named an All-Star in all but one of his 14 seasons with the Lakers and led the team to five NBA championships in the 1980s during the “Showtime” era. He retired from the NBA in 1989 and was inducted into both the Lakers Hall of Fame and Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995. 

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In his time with the Lakers, Chamberlain averaged 19.2 rebounds per game, the standing franchise record. In fact, Chamberlain’s 6,524 total rebounds in his five Laker seasons are good for fifth in franchise history. Chamberlain led the Lakers to the NBA Finals in his first two seasons with the team before finally winning his second ring in 1972 with a victory over the New York Knicks in five games. Chamberlain would play his last game as a Laker the following season and then retire from the NBA.

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Shaquille O’Neal spent almost half of his 19-season NBA career with the Lakers. Alongside Kobe Bryant, he helped build the Lakers into the first NBA championship dynasty of the 21st century, winning three consecutive titles between 2000 and 2002, earning Finals MVP honors in all three. Easily one of the best Lakers centers of all time, Shaq is the franchise leader in PER and he is fifth in rebounds per game, second in blocks and is only behind Kobe and LeBron James in usage percentage among all Lakers. Of Shaq’s 15 All-Star honors, seven came as a Laker.

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2023 Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee Pau Gasol is not only one of the best Lakers centers of all time, he is arguably the greatest Spanish NBA player in history. After spending the first six and a half years of his career in Memphis, Gasol was traded to the Lakers before the 2008 deadline. In his first playoffs with the team, he helped lead the Lakers to the 2008 Finals against the Boston Celtics, who would win. However, the Lakers would win the next two NBA Championships. Gasol made three All-Star Games as a Laker and is in the top 10 in franchise history in both offensive and defensive rebounds. 

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Although the Lakers traded AD in February 2025, he should still be considered one of the best Lakers centers of all time. During the Lakers 2020 championship run in the bubble, Anthony Davis was a massive contributor, averaging 25 points and 10.7 rebounds per game in the Finals, including a 34-point performance in Game 1. He earned All-NBA First Team and All-Defensive First Team honors that same year. Though he was hampered by injuries, Davis made two All-Star Games with the Lakers. Davis is third among franchise leaders in Player Efficiency Rating and block percentage. 

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Though he only spent four of his 14 NBA seasons in LA, Bob McAdoo was an important piece of the Lakers’ dynasty in the 1980s and helped lead the team to two titles in his stint. Backing up the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the former MVP came to the Lakers later in his career, but his contributions should still earn him the right to be considered one of the best Lakers centers of all time. In his playoff career with the Lakers, McAdoo averaged 13.4 points off the bench on shooting more than 50 percent from the field. 

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A legendary big man who pioneered the modern center position, George Mikan is not only one of the best Lakers centers of all time, but perhaps one of the most important players ever at the position. The 6’10” Mikan played from 1948 to 1956 when the Lakers were based in Minneapolis and is credited with forcing the game to create rule changes banning goaltending and introducing the shot clock. A three-time scoring champion, Mikan was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959, shortly after his retirement. Mikan passed away in 2005 at the age of 80. 

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Serbian Hall of Famer Vlade Divac began and ended his career with the Lakers. The Lakers selected Divac 26th overall in the 1989 NBA Draft, and while he averaged just under 20 minutes per game in his rookie season, he earned starter’s minutes the rest of his time in Hollywood. It’s never easy replacing a legend like Kareem, but Divac proved he had the skill and drive to become one of the best Lakers centers in his own right. Divac was traded to the Charlotte Hornets in 1996. After a successful post-Lakers career in Charlotte and Sacramento, Divac returned to the Lakers for his final NBA season in 2004-05. 

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Though he may not have had the career longevity of some others on this list, the seven seasons Andrew Bynum spent with the franchise should be enough to consider him one of the best Lakers centers of all time. In his time with the Lakers, Bynum averaged scoring in double figures, aided by an All-Star 2011-12 campaign, in which he averaged 18.7 points. Bynum averaged a double-double in 2007-08 and the aforementioned 2011-12 season. Although bothered by injuries during most of his post-Lakers career and during some of his time in Los Angeles, Bynum was still a talented young center and a critical role player during consecutive Lakers championship runs in 2009 and 2010

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Veteran center Dwight Howard spent three seasons with the Lakers at three different times. Howard was first traded to the Lakers from the Orlando Magic prior to the 2012-13 season. Despite recovering from back surgery in the offseason and struggling to be the dominant scorer he was in Orlando, Howard averaged a league-best 12.4 rebounds per game and was named an All-Star. Howard would return to the Lakers at the end of the decade for the 2019-20 COVID-interrupted season. Howard and the Lakers would go on to win the 2020 title in the Orlando bubble, delivering Howard his first championship in the city where he started his career. After a year with the Philadelphia 76ers, Howard would return to the Lakers for his last NBA season in 2021-22. 

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This entry was posted on Saturday, April 20th, 2024 at 4:52 pm and is filed under Top 10 Lists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.