Lakers News: LA Legend Believes LeBron James Deserves A Statue Outside Crypto.com Arena
Former longtime Los Angeles Lakers superstar center Shaquille O'Neal has been forever immortalized outside of Crypto.com Arena with an epic statue of him rocking the rim with a dunk (a fitting tribute). Does he think current Los Angeles Lakers superstar forward LeBron James, who has won "only" one title with LA, deserves his own statue outside the team's longtime home court?
To discern the answer to that hypothetical, Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson of Bally Sports cornered O'Neal during the 2023 All-Star Weekend festivities in Salt Lake City.
“He did win a championship with the Lakers, a lot of people say that don’t count, but if you can’t count his then you can’t count Mr. Tim Duncan’s championship. That’s right, I said it! So if we're going to count Tim Duncan's championship that he had during the lockout year [1998-99] then [we] have to count that. So LeBron won as a Laker, he broke the [all-time regular season scoring] record as a Laker. Would I oppose him having a statue? I would not,” O'Neal said. "They want to give him a statue, I'd be fine with that. Great player, great for the league, and he did what he was supposed to do as a Laker.
What O'Neal is referring to is the lockout-truncated 1998-99 NBA season, which ran only 50 games and did not include an All-Star competition. Duncan won his first of five eventual championships with the San Antonio Spurs (one more than O'Neal's with the Lakers and Miami Heat), abetted by All-Star frontcourt running mate David Robinson, still a high-level talent at that juncture.
James has only led LA to one other postseason appearance during his four finished seasons in town. His Lakers currently sit on the outside of the play-in tournament race looking in, with the No. 13 seed in the Western Conference. Has he done enough to warrant bronze effigy consideration? Does he owe Laker fans another title first?
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