Getty LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers
LeBron James has only been with the Los Angeles Lakers for four seasons, but that hasn’t stopped Shaquille O’Neal from stating that the NBA’s All-Time leading scorer deserves a statue outside of the Crypto.com area.
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!”
“He did win a championship with the Lakers. A lot of people said that don’t count, well if you don’t count his, you can’t count Mr. Tim Duncan’s bubble championship; that’s right, I said it. So, if we’re going to count Tim Duncan’s championship that he had during the lock-out year, we have to count that. So, LeBron has won as a Laker, he broke the (scoring) record as a Laker. Would I oppose him having a statue? I would not…He did what he was supposed to do as a Laker,” O’Neal told Bally Sports’ Scoop ‘B’ Robinson.
LeBron has participated in 213 regular season games for the Lakers, averaging 27.5 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 50.9% from the field and 34.7% from deep.
LeBron James Wants to Make The Playoffs
When speaking to the media following the February 19 All-Star game, LeBron spoke of the urgency he feels when it comes to the Lakers’ remaining 23 games and how his sole intention is to help his team qualify for the playoffs.
“It’s 23 of the most important games of my career for a regular season. … It’s the type of mindset that I have, and I hope the guys will have, coming back off the break,” James said. “I hope I can figure out a way to just make sure that I’m available on the floor every single night for these 23 games to give us a chance. … Give our group a chance to be able to compete every night and give ourselves a chance to win every night so we can give ourselves a chance to get into the postseason.”
Danny Green Reveals Why He Rejected Lakers
In a February 19 episode of the “Inside the Green Room” podcast, three-time NBA champion Danny Green revealed why he turned down the opportunity to reunite with the Lakers and opted to join the Cleveland Cavaliers instead – signing a deal with them on February 15.
Danny on why he passed on the opportunity to join Lakers in buyout market
“I don’t think they had the opportunity, or the same opportunity, or the same minutes,” he said. “With all the wings they brought in, all the people they brought in, to be able to say, ‘Oh, you have a good opportunity to be on the floor, and we’re for sure gonna make the playoffs.’ So, it was very up in their air, and it’s a very urgent time for them. They have to win now. They have a lot of pressure in doing that in a short amount of time, and that relies on a lot of LeBron’s help and Anthony Davis’ help in the last 20 to 30 games. And for me, that was a big risk,” Green said.
The Lakers do currently have an open roster spot, so, it will be interesting to see if Rob Pelinka is able to locate a veteran who would be willing to play a role in the team’s march toward the postseason.