LeBron James, a 20-year-old forward for the Los Angeles Lakers and an All-NBA superstar, has a long-standing former colleague who seems to think the timeless talent should receive three bronze statues for his championship-winning runs with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, and now the Lakers. Three-time All-Star point guard Gilbert Arenas recently offered his thoughts on the subject through his highly entertaining podcast, “Gil’s Arena.”
“LeBron James will have a statue at Staples because you’re not gonna have the No. 1 scorer in NBA history not there,” Arenas said. James aims to surpass his impressive records of 40,474 career regular season points and 48,636 combined regular season and postseason points during the next two years.
Arenas continued, “Cleveland will give him one no matter what.” “He might be three years old. There’s no way Los Angeles doesn’t have him with the name, therefore he will undoubtedly have two.”
The Cavaliers selected James with the first overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. James left the team in the summer of 2010 after leading the team to two seasons of 60 wins or more, one Finals appearance, and two MVP trophies. He joined the Miami Heat, where he won two titles and made four consecutive Finals with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, two other Hall of Famers.
The Heat have not indicated that they will honor James similarly, despite the fact that he was the greatest player on those two championship teams and was chosen Finals MVP for his efforts. Wade will soon receive a monument, as was just reported.
with 2014, James came back to Cleveland as a free agent and proceeded to four more consecutive Finals, culminating with a victory in 2016. He joined the Lakers in 2018 and has won one title there so far.
A bronze statue is a rare achievement for anyone, but getting numerous sculptures is an even greater rarity for a player. While James’ statue is likely to be dispersed over three separate arenas, late Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant is expected to receive three bronze statues outside of Crypto.com Arena.
This is a very different viewpoint from what Arenas stated a few months ago on James’s application for an L.A. statue. Arenas made an appearance on the DraftKings-hosted “Nightcap” podcast earlier this year. At one point in their long chat, co-host Shannon Sharpe questioned him about whether he thought James’ achievements with the Lakers were sufficient to earn him a statue.
“What if his career ended today? Nah, hell no. At that time, Arenas remarked, “He doesn’t have enough accolades in the Laker uniform.” “Shake, who played for eight years and won three championship rings, is the closest statue we have that represents that.
Therefore, it will be difficult to include him there given that his six years, 8,000 points scored (while wearing an L.A. uniform), one championship, and six All-Star appearances are insufficient for a statue in Los Angeles. They only need to place his shoes on and begin with them.”
It’s a little unclear why Arenas included the idea that James would be honored as if he wasn’t going to play for Los Angeles for several more years after 2023–2024. James had a contract through 2024–25 even at the time of the interview, so he would have likely scored another 1500–1800 points, earned a seventh All-Star selection, and played in at least one more postseason.
James’s contract is now good through 2025–2026 (though there is a player option for that season), which should cause his stats to climb even higher. Aside from that, James is without a doubt among the top five players in league history. Although the majority of his best seasons were spent abroad, the four-time league MVP’s consistent on-court excellence has persisted at the Staples Center/Crypto.com Arena. In addition to leading Los Angeles to another Western Conference Finals berth and playoff participation in four of his six seasons in the city, he was the Finals MVP of that 2020 championship team.
Arenas would have sealed the deal on that interview if he could win another title while continuing to play at an All-Star level, but it appears that he has already changed his initial statement.
