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By Alex Kirschenbaum
Contributing Entertainment Writer
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A longtime former contemporary of 20-time Los Angeles Lakers All-NBA superstar forward LeBron James appears to believe the ageless wonder could earn a whopping three bronze statues for his title-winning tenures with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, and now the Lakers.
Gilbert Arenas, a three-time All-Star point guard in his day, recently weighed in on the topic via his very entertaining podcast, "Gil's Arena."
Read More on NBA
"LeBron James will have a statue at Staples [now Crypto.com Arena] because you're not gonna have the No. 1 scorer in NBA history not there," Arenas declared. James currently has 40,474 career regular season points, and 48,636 combined playoff and regular season points — both towering records to which he intends to add over at least the next two years.
"Cleveland's gonna give him one no matter what," Arenas added. "He can possibly be three. 100 percent sure he will have two because there's no way Los Angeles doesn't have him with the name."
James was drafted with the No. 1 overall pick by the Cavaliers in 2003, and initially departed in the summer of 2010 after making one Finals appearance, guiding the Cavaliers to a pair of 60-win-plus seasons, and earning two MVP awards. He signed on with the Miami Heat, where alongside fellow Hall of Famers Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh he went to four straight Finals and won two titles.
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While a forthcoming statue for Wade was recently announced, the Heat have given no indication that they would recognize James in the same way — even though he was the best player on those two title teams, having been named Finals MVP for his effort.
Read more: Heat to Honor Hall of Famer, NBA Champion with Statue
James returned to Cleveland as a free agent in 2014 and went to another four straight Finals — winning in 2016. He joined the Lakers in 2018 and has won one title there so far.
It's rare for anyone to earn a bronze statue, but it's rarer still for a player to earn multiple statues. Late Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant is slated to earn three bronze statues outside of Crypto.com Arena, while James' will presumably be spread across three different arenas.
This is a markedly different perspective than what Arenas had said about James' candidacy for a statue from L.A. a few months ago.
Arenas showed up on the "Nightcap" podcast, presented by DraftKings, earlier this year. During a lengthy conversation, he was asked at one point by co-host Shannon Sharpe if he believed James' accolades on the Lakers were enough to warrant the statue treatment.
"If his career stopped right now? Hell nah. He don't have enough accolades in the Laker uniform," Arenas said then. "The closest statue we have with that was with Shaq — Shaq, eight years... three [championship] rings. So it's going to be hard to put him in there with six years, 8,000 points scored [in an L.A. uniform], one championship, and six [All-Star appearances], that's not good enough for a statue in Los Angeles. They can just put his shoes, they can just start with the shoes."
Why Arenas added the concept of James being honored as if he wasn't going to play multiple additional years, beyond 2023-24, with Los Angeles is a bit of a head-scratcher. Even at the time of the interview, James had been under contract through 2024-25, meaning he would have notched presumably another 1500-1800 points, a seventh All-Star berth, and at least another postseason appearance.
James is now under contract through 2025-26 (albeit with a player option for that season), which will send his stats soaring into another stratosphere.
Beyond that, James is inarguably one of the five greatest players in league history. Yes, his prime seasons for the most part happened elsewhere, but the four-time league MVP's sustained on-court brilliance has endured at the Staples Center/Crypto.com Arena. He was the Finals MVP of that 2020 title team and has led Los Angeles to another Western Conference Finals appearance since, plus playoff appearances in four of his six seasons in town.
Winning another championship while still performing at an All-Star level would certainly seal the deal for the Arenas of that interview, but for Arenas already it seems that he's revised his original claim.
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