The Los Angeles Lakers unveiled a statue of NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal outside the Staples Center to honor his contributions to the organization’s success.
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When Shaquille O’Neal was a kid, his stepfather, the late Sgt. Phillip Harrison would quiz him on the greatest NBA centers of all time, from Wilt Chamberlain to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
O’Neal’s NBA career ended with four championships, two scoring titles, 15 All-Star appearances, and numerous other honors. In the early 2000s, he formed an incredible tandem with Kobe Bryant, winning three straight championships.
NBA superstars are known to have a global fanbase, but Shaq and Kobe are officially pushing the boundaries of international stardom.
The former Los Angeles Lakers center is the embodiment of the franchise’s love/hate relationship. It is impossible to overlook Shaq’s importance during the Lakers’ three-peat seasons from 2000 to 2002.
With his legacy as one of the best to ever play the game firmly established, O’Neal received the Lakers’ highest honor on Friday, when a bronze statue of him was unveiled at Staples Center.
Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal has bronze statue of himself outside the Staples Center
Shaquille O’Neal is the latest Lakers legend to be memorialized in sculpture at the Staples Center. Shaq attended an unveiling ceremony with fellow NBA legends Phil Jackson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jerry West, and Kobe Bryant, during which the imposing statue was formally revealed.
And one of the legends he grew up admiring was on hand to toast O’Neal’s latest honor.
“When I look up at that statue, I’ll see the kind of talented, passionate, and generous man for whom we’ve been constructing statues for the past 30,000 years,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “We should all be inspired to be our best selves.”
The massive sculpture depicts O’Neal dangling from the rim as a freshly dunked ball makes its way through the net and weighs well over 1,000 pounds. The statue, at nine feet tall, is slightly larger than the man himself.
This is the eighth statue honoring a Los Angeles sports icon to be unveiled in the Staples Center’s Star Plaza. Although O’Neal is one of the few to have played in the stadium.
In announcing the statue, Lakers president Jeanie Buss noted that O’Neal broke ground for the venue in 1998. Shaq was a huge part of its early success, helping the Lakers win three titles immediately after it opened.
