Magic Johnson answered his cell on the first ring and in a nanosecond his excitement was at a fever pitch.
“My boy made it! My boy made it! My boy Coop made the Hall of Fame!” Johnson exclaimed. “Damn! I was hollering, man, when I heard it. I couldn’t believe it. I was so excited for him, man.”
His “boy” is Michael Cooper, the defensive virtuoso on those dominant Lakers championship teams in the 1980s who indeed has been elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The announcement was made Saturday, but Johnson had been overjoyed for a few days before it became official, his happiness at a high because Cooper was finally being recognized among the greats in the game of basketball because he was an integral part of five Lakers championships.
“This is one of the greatest Laker moments in the history of the franchise because here is a guy who is making it to the Hall of Fame and he didn’t even start,” Johnson said. “That tells you how great he was and also how everybody else knew how great he was. We knew how great he was and it’s good to know that everybody else felt the same way about his contributions to the game of basketball.
“It’s not just to the Lakers, but to the game of basketball was strong enough to make it to the Hall of Fame. To hear Larry Bird, all these guys say that he was the toughest defender that they had to go against, that says it all right there. And then myself knowing that because I practiced against the dude so I already knew he was the best defender.”
Cooper never backed down when taking on the assignment of guarding some of the NBA’s greatest during his time: from Bird to Bernard King to Alex English to Dominique Wilkins to Isiah Thomas to Michael Jordan.
And that was why Cooper was the NBA’s defensive player of the year in 1987 and why he made the All-Defensive team eight times during his 12-year career with the Lakers, five times on the first team.
“He always wanted the best player,” said Johnson, himself a Hall of Famer. “He just said, ‘I got him.’ And he didn’t back down from nobody. That’s what got him into the Hall of Fame as well, because he believed in his talent and didn’t back down to nobody. He would talk trash, but he would back it right on up.”
The great Jerry West will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame for the third time, the latest as a contributor to the game.
The announcement was made Saturday at the Final Four in Phoenix, the class of 2024 having 13 new members: players Chauncey Billups, Vince Carter, Seimone Augustus, Walter Davis, Dick Barnett and Michele Timms, coaches Charles Smith, Harley Redin and Bo Ryan, broadcaster/coach Doug Collins and owner Herb Simon.
They will be enshrined into the Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., in August.
Former Lakers star Byron Scott said he, James Worthy, former Lakers trainer Gary Vitti and their wives were having lunch a few months ago with Cooper when he lamented about having not made it when he was a finalist for the class of 2021. Then Cooper, 67, became a finalist again for the 2024 class during NBA All-Star weekend in Indianapolis.
“Coop was like, ‘Man, if it happens, it happens,’ ” Scott recalled. “Then James walked in and was like, ‘What’s up future Hall of Famer?’ I said, ‘You are going to get in, man. There are some other defensive players that got in so you are going to get in this time.’ He was like, ‘If I do, I do. No big deal.’
“So, when I heard the news I was so happy and proud for my brother. It was so long overdue because he is still considered one of the greatest defensive players who has ever played in this game. So, how can you not have him in the Hall of Fame? It’s a beautiful thing.”
Cooper played his entire NBA career with the Lakers, spanning 873 games. He was drafted in the third round in 1978, the 60th overall pick. He was a thin 6-7 wing player who had played basketball at Pasadena High and Pasadena City College before going to New Mexico.
He averaged 8.9 points, 4.2 assists and 1.2 steals a game.
But it was Cooper’s defense that made him stand out. And now he has joined “Showtime” legends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bob McAdoo, Jamaal Wilkes, Worthy, Johnson and coach Pat Riley in the Hall of Fame.
“It shows a lot of kids that if you concentrate on defense, if you’re unselfish, if you will play your role and be happy and buy into that role, while you can still do the other things,” Johnson said. “People forget this: Coop could have started for any other team in the NBA and probably been an All-Star almost every year.”
The two became close friends, immediately hitting it off during Johnson’s rookie season in 1979-80.
They developed the “Coop-a-loop,” which was Johnson throwing a lob pass to Cooper, who threw it down with a one-handed dunk.
“I used to tell him in training camp, ‘Man, you jump so high so just take off and I’ll get it to you’” Johnson said. “That became the ‘Coop-a-loop!’”
Johnson recalled how Cooper had a big moment for the Lakers against the hated Boston Celtics in Game 2 of the 1987 NBA Finals.
Cooper made six three-pointers in that game, which was then an NBA Finals record. He missed just one of his 7 threes and had 21 points, 9 assists and three steals in just 26 minutes.
“He hit six three-pointers in the NBA Finals. Not the regular season. The NBA Finals! Every shot they were cheering for him,” Johnson said. “They wanted him to make another one. He blew Game 2 wide open by hitting those six threes. Aw, man! So, you see why I’m so happy my boy made it to the Hall of Fame.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
