LeBron James is inarguably one of the greatest players in basketball history and whenever his career is over, he will get honored like no other.
But inspired by a recent question posed by our friends at USA TODAY Sports, we recently wondered how many statues James will have around the league when it is all said and done.
James has won championships with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, and Los Angeles Lakers. He won NBA Finals MVP while playing for each team as well. Is that enough, however, for each organization to eventually put up a statue to tribute his accomplishments?
Should LeBron James have a statue in Cleveland, Miami and LA? pic.twitter.com/PE17FJJ4VR
— USA TODAY Sports (@usatodaysports) March 2, 2024
James will definitely have a statue in Cleveland, the city where is from and where he brought the first and only NBA championship in 2016. It was the only professional title the city had won since 1964.
But will James also get immortalized in Miami and Los Angeles? That is a much harder question to answer.
Miami is the only city where James won multiple championships. But he also did not play for the team for very long, spending just four of his seasons with the Heat.
No one in franchise history has a statue for the Heat, though Dwyane Wade will soon become the first. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith believes that James did enough to warrant a statue in Miami.
We can expect Wade will have the solo honor of immortalization in South Beach for a bit before the team considers the same treatment for his former teammate.
Perhaps a tougher task for James is earning a statue in Los Angeles.
There are currently six former players (Shaquille O’Neal, Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elgin Baylor, and Kobe Bryant) who have statues for the Lakers.
James didn’t spend nearly as much time with the team as any of the players listed above, but he did break the NBA’s all-time scoring record previously held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar while wearing a Lakers jersey.
Should he win another title with Los Angeles, perhaps the possibility will become more realistic. Otherwise, though, it seems most likely that James has just one statue outside an NBA arena once his career is over.
