James Worthy

James Worthy played his college ball at the University of North Carolina from 1979-1982. During his junior season at UNC, James Worthy, Sam Perkins and Michael Jordan would headline one of the most talented teams in the country. Worth would earn First Team All American with averages 15.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists while shooting a .572 from the field.

Worthy would also share Player of The Year honors with Virginia's Ralph Sampson. The Tarheels would face-off against the Georgetown Hoyas in the National Championship Game. While most people will remember the game for Jordan’s game-winning shot, Worthy had one of the best games of his career scoring 28 points hitting on 13 of his 17 field goal attempts.

Thanks to a trade deal with Cleveland a few years earlier, the Los Angeles Lakers selected James Worthy with the top pick in the draft. Worthy would be only the second top pick of the Lakers; the first being Magic Johnson in 1979. Despite being the #1 pick however, James’ impact on the Lakers would not be immediate as we would spend most of his rookie season playing behind Jamaal Wilkes. Despite not being the featured player at Small Forward, Worthy would have respectable averages of 13.4 points, and 5.2 rebounds to go along with being selected to the All-Rookie Team.

After suffering back-to-back losses in the Finals to Sixers in 1983 and the Celtics in 1984, Worthy would show he had arrived as a player during the 1984-1985 season. Worthy would average 17.6 points and 6.4 rebounds during the regular season and would increase his production during the playoffs averaging nearly 22 points per contest. Worthy would help the Lakers capture the title and would later say that the 1985 championship meant more to him because it was his first championship and that they clinched it in Boston. James Worthy would go help the Lakers capture the title two of the next three season and earning the name big-game James as his playoff production was usually higher than that of the regular season.

The 1987-1988 season would mark the last championship for the Lakers team headed by Johnson, Worthy, and Jabbar. They would be swept by the Detroit Pistons in 1989 and would fall to the Chicago Bulls in five games in the 1991 NBA Finals. James Worthy would play three more seasons before retiring at the start of the 1994-1995 season.

James Worthy was one of the most fluid players at the small forward position during his career with the Los Angeles Lakers. James Worthy earned the nickname “Big Game James’’ because he always elevated his level of play when it counted the most. Two of the more impressive seasons during Worthy’s career with the Los Angeles Lakers came during 1987 and 1988. James Worthy would help lead the Lakers to the best record in the league in both seasons with 65 and 62 wins respectively.

Worthy would average over 19 points per game during those seasons and over 22 points in the post-season. Behind Worthy’s increased production during the playoffs, the Lakers would win back-to-back titles and became the first team in over two decades to repeat as champions. James Worthy would cap off the Lakers’ second title run with a 36 points, 16 rebounds, and 10 assist performance to edge out the Detroit Pistons 108-105 in game 6 of 1988 Finals. Worthy would be named the Most Valuable Player of the Finals despite not making the All NBA Third Team. Worthy would finish his career with a playoff career field goal percentage of .544 which ranks among the top NBA’s top 10 in this category. His former coach Pat Riley was quoted as saying “When he was in his prime, there was no one who could touch him.”