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Kareem Abdul Jabbar's likeness will be immortalized in bronze today at 4:30 pm, pacific time. The statue itself will be sixteen feet tall and 1500 pounds, debuting in Star plaza outside of Staples. The public is welcome to free attendance and coverage will be on TWC.

Personally, I'm elated. KAJ is one of my favorite players and I consider him a top three GOAT.

Salute to the Captain.

The televised ceremony was a nice tribute to a great basketball player and greater man. Definitely some interesting tribute speeches mixed in there. Too bad there isn't a little more fanfare for celebrating the Captain on this board for finally getting a well deserved acknowledgement.

ANy idea why Magic wasn't around for this?

Although he whined to get it (and I still don't understand why), well deserved.

SlavaMedvedenko wrote:ANy idea why Magic wasn't around for this?

I'm not sure what you mean? Magic probably gave the best speech of the night and credited his MVP's to KAJ.

Second the salute to the Captain. Would have loved to have seen him in his prime.

zen_4_10 wrote:

SlavaMedvedenko wrote:ANy idea why Magic wasn't around for this?

I'm not sure what you mean? Magic probably gave the best speech of the night and credited his MVP's to KAJ.

My bad, he was not included in the program on twitter.

Salute to the cap!!

StarneyBinston wrote:Although he whined to get it (and I still don't understand why), well deserved.

Yeah, I still don't know how I feel about that. I mean, I get there's probably a lot of frustration there and the competitive spirit between these guys is as alive and well as it's ever been. But to come out and whine like he did just felt so out-of-character for him. Especially seeing as how the Lakers and AEG had both talked to him before Magic's unveiling and promised he would get the next one. That said, it's certainly been the best one made by far, and the ceremony wasn't half-assed either.

Salute to the greatest player ever. Don't care about people complaining about him wanting a statue. He had done so much for the game, I rather have him complain about it and witness it alive than have it up after he checks out.

Kareem deserves it, the most unappreciated athlete ever!

Swag

Guys, whether or not Kareem complained he is one of the goat!!! He deserves the staue!!!

Awesome great to see the Captain receive that honor. He became a star here in Milwaukee and a legend out of in LA.

LateRoundFlyer wrote:

StarneyBinston wrote:Although he whined to get it (and I still don't understand why), well deserved.

Yeah, I still don't know how I feel about that. I mean, I get there's probably a lot of frustration there and the competitive spirit between these guys is as alive and well as it's ever been. But to come out and whine like he did just felt so out-of-character for him. Especially seeing as how the Lakers and AEG had both talked to him before Magic's unveiling and promised he would get the next one. That said, it's certainly been the best one made by far, and the ceremony wasn't half-assed either.

Maybe he complained because after being told after Magic's he was next only to see Wayne Gretzky and Oscar De La Hoya go up soon after ?

Kareem carried the Laker franchise for 4 years before Magic even got there, then another 5 until Magic was able to carry the load. Like Magic said " with no Kareem you have no Staples Center". I honestly believe that if Kareem didn't come out and make a fuss about it, it probably wouldn't have even gotten done.

DEEP3CL wrote:Maybe he complained because after being told after Magic's he was next only to see Wayne Gretzky and Oscar De La Hoya go up soon after ?

Kareem carried the Laker franchise for 4 years before Magic even got there, then another 5 until Magic was able to carry the load. Like Magic said " with no Kareem you have no Staples Center". I honestly believe that if Kareem didn't come out and make a fuss about it, it probably wouldn't have even gotten done.

what do the gretzky/oscar de la hoya statues have to do with the lakers? he shoulda went after AEG, not the lakers, if that was his gripe.

dockingsched wrote:what do the gretzky/oscar de la hoya statues have to do with the lakers? he shoulda went after AEG, not the lakers, if that was his gripe.

You're getting it twisted, you can't ask what does it have to do with the Lakers when it's obvious that AEG would be the ones in charge of putting it out there. Bottom line is AEG and the Lakers have to work hand and hand to make it happen. The Lakers until Kareem complained, showed no interest what so ever in making it happen and like I said AEG put up De La Hoya and Gretzky.

Kareem knew this and it was his reason for griping with the Lakers. AEG wasn't going to do anything until the Lakers came to them, we all know this it's not rocket science.

Kareem should have come up with clearer explanations about the situation then. All I remember reading was that he was mad that Jerry West had a statue and that he felt disrespected because he didn't have one. I had never heard about the fact he had been promised to get one after Magic before today.

DEEP3CL wrote:

dockingsched wrote:what do the gretzky/oscar de la hoya statues have to do with the lakers? he shoulda went after AEG, not the lakers, if that was his gripe.

You're getting it twisted, you can't ask what does it have to do with the Lakers when it's obvious that AEG would be the ones in charge of putting it out there. Bottom line is AEG and the Lakers have to work hand and hand to make it happen. The Lakers until Kareem complained, showed no interest what so ever in making it happen and like I said AEG put up De La Hoya and Gretzky.

Kareem knew this and it was his reason for griping with the Lakers. AEG wasn't going to do anything until the Lakers came to them, we all know this it's not rocket science.

Doesn't that contradict your whole point? Aren't you silently admitting that Kareem took his frustrations out on the wrong party, because AEG were the ones to "make it happen", not the Lakers?

This was from an article dated May 2011, in which Kareem himself said the head of AEG promised him he was next in line:

"At one point (AEG president and CEO and Lakers director) Tim Leiweke told me, 'Hey, your statue is next,'" Abdul-Jabbar said. "Chick Hearn died unexpectedly and they wanted to honor him. I didn't have any problem with that. Chick has been with the team since 1960 and is part and parcel of what the Lakers are all about.I don't have any problem with any of the people who got their statues up there, they absolutely earned it. I just kept dealing with me being put on the backburner when it didn't seem I was even on the stove at that point."

A source within the Lakers organization said, in response to Abdul-Jabbar's claim, the team notified him months ago they were going to erect a statue for him next season.

"I don't get what he is doing," the source said to ESPNLosAngeles.com.

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/n ... id=6566583

So if you want to accuse anyone of twisting anything, might I suggest Kareem himself? His complaints were really the product of two different frustrations that had no business being mixed together. The first was how he was treated by the Lakers organization in recent years. Had nothing to do with the statue; he knew AEG was stalling there.

But instead of making this exact point, which we all know he is brilliantly capable of making, he conflated the two and came across in a very off-putting manner. Even though it's unfortunate he had to say anything about either.

TBH who gives a **** how it got done: the statue's awesome.