The
Los Angeles Lakers selected Campbell with the 27th pick in the
1990 NBA draft. As a rookie in
1990–91, he was a
reserve during
Magic Johnson's last full season in the NBA, which marked the end of the Lakers'
Showtime era. In the
1991 NBA Finals against the
Chicago Bulls, Campbell played just six minutes in the first four games before scoring 21 points in 27 minutes in a game 5 loss that clinched the title for the Bulls. He had a breakthrough season in his fourth year in
1993–94 with averages of 12.3 points and 6.8
rebounds per game for a struggling squad that suffered its worst record in 44 years with a .402
winning percentage. It launched his most productive stretch with the Lakers, a five-season span from 1993 to 1998 in which he averaged 12.7 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks, including a career-high 14.9 points per game in
1996–97 while playing with
Shaquille O'Neal and
Kobe Bryant. On March 10, 1999, Campbell was traded by the Lakers along with
Eddie Jones to the
Charlotte Hornets for
Glen Rice,
J. R. Reid and
B. J. Armstrong; he missed out on the O'Neal- and Bryant-led Lakers teams that won three consecutive NBA championships in the early 2000s. Campbell's longest tenures were with the Lakers and the Hornets (in both
Charlotte and
New Orleans); he also played with the
Seattle SuperSonics and briefly for the
New Jersey Nets. He played most of his final two seasons with the
Detroit Pistons, winning an NBA championship in
2004 over the Lakers and losing the
2005 NBA Finals in seven games to the
San Antonio Spurs. He had joined the Pistons on a two-year, $8.4 million contract in 2003, turning down more lucrative offers in order to join a championship contender. Campbell played in 65 games with 27
starts in
2003–04, averaging 5.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in 13.7 minutes. After playing in just nine of Detroit's first 18 playoff games, his minutes doubled from earlier rounds and he played in every game of the 2004 NBA Finals as a valuable, big defender against Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal. Campbell was the first player off the bench for either team in game 1, when he established personal highs for that postseason of 18 minutes, six points and four
assists. Campbell's 15-year career comprised 1,044 games, of which he started 671, and 106 playoff games, of which he started 53. and he ranks third in career blocks in franchise history with 1,022. His nicknames were "Easy" and "Big E". ==NBA career statistics==