As difficult as it is to believe, there was a time when the Los Angeles Lakers were nothing more than a bunch of scrubs.

Not that they lacked talent in the 1960s.

The Lakers just didn't have a fraction of their now-rampant appeal after moving to Hollywood from Minneapolis. Los Angeles simply viewed pro football and baseball - particularly the Rams and Dodgers - as the Gucci of the city's sports fabric.

"We were like stepchildren," Laker legend Jerry West said. "A minor sport."

Of course, West now serves as president of the NBA's modern-day stepchildren (the Grizzlies). Broadcaster Marv Albert acknowledged West's title last Friday while introducing him as a presenter at basketball's Hall of Fame ceremony.

West was called upon for a posthumous induction of legendary Lakers announcer Francis 'Chick' Hearn, who died on Aug. 5, 2002, at age 85.

Marge Hearn, his widow, insisted Chick would have tabbed West.

The honor, as West put it, made him more nervous than his 1980 Hall induction.