In recent years, the Los Angeles Lakers have honored several of their all-time greats by erecting statues of their likenesses.
One of them is Shaquille O’Neal, who played eight seasons with the Lakers and averaged 27 points on 57.5% shooting, 11.8 rebounds and 2.5 blocked shots a game during that time. Of course, he is most well-known for leading the Purple and Gold to three straight NBA championships along with the late Kobe Bryant.
Nowadays, LeBron James is the leading man for Los Angeles, and some believe his tenure thus far with the team pales in comparison to that of O’Neal and Bryant.
O’Neal disagrees. In fact, he said during All-Star weekend that would have no problem with the Lakers giving James a statue outside of Crypto.com Arena.
LeBron James deserves a statue in front of @cryptocom because he brought a championship to Los Angeles says @SHAQ to @BallySports.
“A lot of people say that don’t count & if you can’t count his then you can’t count Mr. Tim Duncan’s bubble championship. That’s right, I said it!” pic.twitter.com/abDy6uJzwm
— 👑 Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson (@ScoopB) February 19, 2023
O’Neal also threw shade at Tim Duncan, one of his biggest rivals throughout his career, and claimed his 1999 title is shaded because it came during a lockout-shortened season.
Many discount James’ 2020 ring because it came inside of the Walt Disney World Resort bubble with no fans and no travel. But in other ways, some have opined it was the toughest championship anyone has had to win because of the COVID-related restrictions he and his teammates had to deal with.
For just about all of that 2019-20 campaign, the Lakers looked like the team to beat, and a strong argument could be made they still would’ve won the world championship had the coronavirus pandemic not happened.
The popular opinion seems to be that James needs to win at least one more title to lift his Lakers legacy to the level of an O’Neal. But he has already left his mark on the storied franchise.
