Goodrich Now on Wall of Fame Too

Former coaches John Wooden and Bill Sharman and one-time teammates Wilt Chamberlain and Walt Hazzard joined family members and several other luminaries Wednesday night at the Forum to salute Gail Goodrich as his uniform No. 25 was retired during halftime ceremonies.

Goodrich’s jersey was unveiled in the 13-minute tribute and now hangs alongside that of James Worthy, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jerry West, Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. The Hall of Fame guard also received a framed uniform top and a crystal from Tiffany’s of him shooting the left-handed jumper.

“It doesn’t get better than this,” Goodrich said. “As I look up there, I see the jerseys of Baylor, Chamberlain, West, Jabbar--all of whom I had the great fortune to play with--Magic, Worthy. It is really something, a tremendous honor.”

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Maybe those two seven-minute delays Tuesday at Golden State because of electronic problems weren’t such a bad thing for the Lakers. For one thing, one helped halt the momentum on a Warriors’ rally. For another . . .

“What we were saying when the power went out was that we go through this every day in practice,” Nick Van Exel said. “We get hot and then Del [Harris, the coach] will talk to us for 15 minutes. So we thought this is our advantage. This is the way we play every day in practice.”