There are dozens of ways an NBA team can honor a former player. Nowadays it seems as if anyone who wore a jersey for more than a year or two gets a tribute video when they return to their old stomping grounds. Retired jerseys are the standard for team legends, and they come with a permanence that needs to be reserved a select few. After all, you can only theoretically retire so many numbers before running out of available ones.
But there's a level beyond even jersey retirements, and it's a rarity: the statue outside of the arena. At present, only 13 of them exist. These monuments are meant for something greater than a team legend. They belong to local icons, players whose relationships with a city transcend the sport and even the bounds of time. The Chicago Bulls will never not be Michael Jordan's team. It's fitting that Bulls fans get to see his likeness before every home game.
On Monday, former NBA player Gilbert Arenas made waves when he said that LeBron James should not get a statue in Los Angeles. For reasons I'll explain shortly, I agree with his position, but the concept got me thinking: who does deserve a statue in the NBA, and where should that statue be?
I enter this exercise with two hard-and-fast rules. First, a championship is a prerequisite for a statue. Part of what a statue should be meant to celebrate is reaching the pinnacle of the sport. Notably, there are four current statue players who do not have championships: John Stockton, Karl Malone, Dominique Wilkins and Elgin Baylor. In our stricter world, they'll have to settle for retired jerseys.
Second, nobody can have a statue in more than one city. This obviously raises some complications for players who won championships in multiple cities, but statues extend beyond what happens on the court. They should represent a singular bond between a figure and his city that can't be replicated elsewhere.
So with that in mind, 26 total people -- 22 players and four coaches -- qualify for immortalization. Of those 26, 10 already have statues. Let's quickly run through those.
The current statues
- Michael Jordan, Chicago Bulls: If you can think of an argument against a Michael Jordan statue, I'd love to hear it.
- Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks: No notes on the current statue. It seemingly defies gravity to accurately capture the essence of history's greatest Maverick by showcasing his most famous shot.
- Jerry West, Los Angeles Lakers: A top-five Laker player, a one-time Laker coach and by far the most important executive in Laker history, West's case is unassailable.
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Los Angeles Lakers: We're once again breaking our one-statue rule here, but at least we're staying in a single city. Abdul-Jabbar needs a statue at Crypto.com Arena for his five Laker championships, but the truth is that he might have meant even more to Los Angeles as a UCLA Bruin, so we're going to make sure an Abdul-Jabbar statue stands outside of Pauley Pavilion as well.
- Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Lakers: Johnson more or less invented the concept of modern Lakerdom. He made Showtime possible both on and off of the court. Modern stars want to play in Los Angeles for the weather and winning, sure, but Johnson was the player who hammered home just how much glamour could come from starring as a Laker.
- Shaquille O'Neal, Los Angeles Lakers: In many ways, O'Neal was Johnson's successor in Los Angeles. His playing style might not have been quite as exciting, but he embodied the stardom that comes with winning titles as a Laker just as Johnson once did. They embraced fame in ways their more subtle teammates often didn't. That might not mean much to certain teams, but it's the Laker brand incarnate.
- Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers: In reality, the Lakers are apparently planning three separate Bryant statues. That's overkill, so the question then becomes, if Bryant can only have one statue, what should the pose be? Vanessa Bryant told us that Kobe himself chose the pose for his first, the single finger salute he made after scoring 81 points in a game. However, if the goal is to pick an iconic pose, it would have to involve his signature fadeaway shot.
- George Mikan, Minneapolis Lakers: Mikan currently has a statue inside of an arena, but not the one his former team plays in. Mikan spent the bulk of his career winning championships as a Laker ... but a Minneapolis Laker. The Los Angeles Lakers retired his number, but his statue sits in the Target Center, where the Timberwolves play. That's the right call. No player should have a statue in a city they didn't play in.
- Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia 76ers: We're redoing the current, bizarrely designed statue. Our new version will have him holding up his iconic 100-point sign.
- Hakeem Olajuwon, Houston Rockets: Olajuwon's statue differs from the others in that it is not a monument made in his image. His Islamic faith does not allow for a statue made in his image or likeness, so the Rockets instead built a statue that showcased his No. 34 jersey.
So, who are our other 16 statue recipients, and who just barely missed the cut? Here's the final breakdown:
The 16 new statues
Here are our 16 new statues, listed in alphabetical order by the city in which their statue belongs:
- Bill Russell, Boston Celtics: An obvious pick. When your number is retired league-wide, you obviously deserve a statue. Russell currently has one in Boston, but it's at City Hall Plaza, not TD Garden.
- Larry Bird, Boston Celtics: Russell is history's greatest Celtic, but Bird was the star who ensured that the team's legacy would survive beyond him. Yes, Boston won championships between Russell and Bird, but did so with Russell's teammate, John Havlicek, as one of the catalysts. Bird was the first player to lead Boston to the promised land with no lingering remnants of Russell's team.
- Red Auerbach, Boston Celtics: Yes, his statue will include a cigar. As a non-expert on statue technology, I can pledge to look into whether or not we can rig that cigar to automatically light after Celtics victories.
- Scottie Pippen, Chicago Bulls: This one is long overdue. Pippen may have said several uncomfortable things about Jordan and the Bulls in recent years, but he has a valid point. Credit for those six championships tends to be disproportionally given to Jordan. A Pippen statue would be an acknowledgment that he was part of a team. In a way, a Pippen statue would be validation for every other player who helped Jordan win his championships. As the only other player who was around for all six, it would certainly be appropriate.
- Phil Jackson, Chicago Bulls: Anyone in Chicago will tell you that hardware comes best in groups of three, so let's put Jackson alongside Jordan and Pippen.
- LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers: The question here isn't whether or not James deserves a statue, it's where his statue belongs. All three of his cities have credible arguments. He won more championships in Miami (two) than he has in Los Angeles or Cleveland (one each). If James extends with the Lakers this offseason, he'll be positioning himself to possibly reach eight straight seasons as a Laker, which would be his longest consecutive stretch with any single team. Still, his statue has to be in Cleveland. He's the kid from Akron, not Glendale or Aventura. Perhaps no athlete has ever been as intimately connected to his hometown as James. He could play 100 years in Los Angeles and he'd still forever be associated with Cleveland.
- Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets: Our youngest honoree might need a statue to set himself apart. Carmelo Anthony has made it clear that he's bitter about the Nuggets giving Jokic his No. 15 jersey, and eventually, they might feel compelled to retire it for both of them. Anthony will never get a statue in Denver, though, so giving one to Jokic ensures that the greatest Nugget of all time stands alone on, at least on one front.
- Isiah Thomas, Detroit Pistons: The man ended both the Magic Johnson and Larry Bird dynasties while holding off Jordan's for as long as possible. He'll never get the respect he's due being sandwiched between those icons, but he should at least get that acknowledgment in Detroit.
- Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors: I'm going to make an exception here. Curry should have two statues. One would obviously go in front of the Chase Center in San Francisco, where the Warriors currently play, and the other should be erected across the bay in front of the former-Oracle Arena, where Curry spent the bulk of his prime. The Warriors may no longer play there, but as long as that arena stands, it will belong to Curry.
- Dwyane Wade, Miami Heat: Fun fact: the city of Miami once officially renamed its county after Wade for a full week. That's statue material.
- Pat Riley, Miami Heat: You could argue that Riley's proper statue would be in Los Angeles, where he was a part of five championship teams as a coach and another as a player. But the Miami Heat have played 36 total seasons of NBA basketball, and Riley has been running the show for 29 of them. When you've been in charge of a team for 75% of its existence and helped lead it to three titles, that's where your statue belongs.
- Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks: Antetokounmpo joins Jokic as the only two players in their 20's to earn statues, and their cases are built on the same principles: one championship, two MVPs and an entire career spent in a single city.
- Walt Frazier, New York Knicks: His two championships as a player might be enough for a statue, but if there was any doubt, his decades as a Knicks broadcaster clinch it. Frazier is an icon to every generation of Knicks fans. How many other players can say the same?
- Julius Erving, Philadelphia 76ers: Erving has an existing statue outside of the 76ers' practice facility, and it's an appropriate dunking pose, but if possible, a more elaborate setup showcasing his legendary Finals layup from behind the backboard would be a nice way to differentiate a new monument if the 76ers ever chose to erect one.
- Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs: The problem here is that Duncan is so averse to attention that he'd probably prefer not to get a statue. Fortunately, we have a workaround ...
- Gregg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs: Let's put the Duncan and Popovich statues together. Not only would it be an appropriate representation of arguably the greatest player-coach combination in history, but it might hold just enough symbolic sway to actually convince the two of them to accept such an honor.
The toughest cuts
- Moses Malone feels like a statue player. He won three MVPs! But the first two came in Houston, the city he spent the most time in, but one he didn't bring a championship to. He ultimately won his ring in Philadelphia, and he was the best player on that team. But he was only there for five seasons. His relationship with the city just didn't last long enough for him to get his statue.
- David Robinson and Alonzo Mourning fall in a similar bucket. They're team icons who won championships and proceeded to cement themselves as local legends with incredible track records of philanthropy within those communities. But think about the players on this list. How many of them were never the best player on a championship team? Certainly Pippen ... but he won six titles. Perhaps West, but he beefed his resume with his remarkable GM stretch. Erving at least made the Finals as the best 76er. But generally? The players we're talking about here were the best players on champions. Robinson and Mourning never were.
- Bill Walton would have a statue in Portland if he'd stayed healthy. He didn't, and the fallout of those injuries ultimately led him out of Portland too quickly to get one.
- Kyle Lowry was the most agonizing honorable mention. The simple explanation, as painful as it is to write, is that he's just never been good enough to warrant a statue (despite the one that made the rounds a few years ago). Lowry is the greatest Raptor ever. Toronto doesn't have a ring without him. But he was never even a top-10 player in the NBA. He made one All-NBA Team. Lowry will eventually become the first Raptor to have his jersey retired, but a statue is a bridge too far for a player with his resume.
- Steve Nash (Phoenix), James Harden (Houston), Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City), Kevin Garnett (Minnesota) and Reggie Miller (Indiana) would have qualified with championships, but none won titles in the cities in question. For now, that is the only thing holding Joel Embiid back in Philadelphia, but he obviously still has a chance to do so. The four players we mentioned above as actually having statues without rings also fit into this group.
- Just a quick note: We've only covered players and coaches in this space. There is one existing statue that does not meet the criteria we covered, and it belongs to former Lakers announcer Chick Hearn. As the greatest broadcaster in NBA history, he gets to sidestep the criteria we used for players and coaches. Technically, that means we have 27 acceptable statues.
