The Big Diesel weighs in on whether James has done enough in L.A. to be edified in bronze.
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Has 21-time All-Star Los Angeles Lakers power forward LeBron James done enough to warrant getting a permanent statue outside of Crypto.com Arena?
During an extensive conversation with longtime NBA insider Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson, former three-time Lakers champion center Shaquille O’Neal — an L.A. great with a statue — reflected on whether his one-time Cleveland Cavaliers comrade had done enough to warrant immortalization in bronze.
Shaq on LeBron deserving a statue in LA:
“He won a championship with the Lakers and a lot of people try to discredit it. If that one doesn’t count, then you can’t count Mr. Duncan’s bubble championship either. That’s right. I said it! If we’re counting Tim Duncan’s lockout-
“LeBron broke the [league’s all-time scoring] record, and he did it as a Laker,” O’Neal said. “Would I oppose him having a statue in Los Angeles? No, I wouldn’t. If they want to give him a statue, I’d be fine with that.”
As the team’s best player, James also led the Lakers to the 2020 title during just his second season on the team, and brought L.A. to the Western Conference Finals a second time, in 2023, as its second-best player. He has spent seven All-Star seasons of his Hall of Fame career with L.A. (and been an All-NBA honoree for six of them, with a seventh presumably en route this year), and he’s under contract for an eighth.
Alongside new addition Luka Doncic, it’s conceivable that James could win another title with the Lakers before he hangs up his Nikes for good.
Some fans and pundits believe the Lakers’ victory in the Orlando “bubble” campus of 2020, during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, somehow counts less than titles achieved during ordinary playoff circumstances.
“I’m not the one you should ask about that,” O’Neal said of the 2020 championship. “But he won a championship with the Lakers, and a lot of people try to discredit it. If that one doesn’t count, then you can’t count Mr. [Tim] Duncan’s bubble championship either. That’s right. I said it! If we’re counting Tim Duncan’s lockout-year championship, then you have to count LeBron’s too.”
LAL. Luka. Austin. LeBron. 😎 pic.twitter.com/SCNuRv8Al4
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) March 30, 2025
O’Neal acknowledged that Los Angeles fans want more titles. In fairness, they’ve already gotten 17, more than all but one other franchise.
“But the thing about the Lakers is, their fans are real greedy,” O’Neal added. “Okay, you got us this bubble championship, but when are you going to get us another? It’s always that.”
Here’s another pertinent Lakers bronze edifice question: do Anthony Davis and/or Pau Gasol deserve the statue treatment, too?
Davis, a future Hall of Famer, was the second-best player on that 2020 championship squad and probably the first-best on L.A.’s 2023 Western Conference Finals team. He made four All-Star teams, two All-NBA teams and two All-Defensive teams during his five-and-a-half season L.A. tenure.
Gasol, already a Hall of Famer, was the second-best player on three consecutive NBA Finals clubs, from 2008-10, winning a pair of titles in 2009 and ’10. He was named to three All-Star teams and three All-NBA teams during his six-and-a-half seasons in town. His jersey has already been retired by the franchise.
