Lakers great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who won five titles with Los Angeles and stands as the league's all-time leading scorer, does not have a statue in his honor outside Staples Center, which upsets him. "It's definitely a slight," he told The Sporting News in a recent interview. "I feel slighted."
↵↵Magic Johnson and Jerry West stand as the only players the Lakers have honored with such a statue. Legendary broadcaster Chick Hearn is also so honored. And apparently, Abdul-Jabbar has tired of waiting.
↵↵John Black, the Lakers' spokesman, urged Abdul-Jabbar and his supporters to stay cool, in so many words. In a statement, Black said, "We've been at Staples Center 11 years and have two ex-players who have statues now. It's not like we do it every year; we have no timetable. Whenever we do the next statue of the third Los Angeles Lakers player, it (will be) Kareem---and he has been told that."
↵↵Perhaps Kareem didn't get that memo.
↵↵The good news is that the Lakers have guaranteed he'll receive a statue sometime in the future; the bad news is that it's already taken them this long to honor him, and that the fit he threw in the media about it makes him look a bit silly, if we're honest.