Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Wants Statue From Lakers

Lakers Hall of Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar feels he's been "slighted" by the Lakers and wants a statue of himself up at the Staples Center. Apparently, his relationship with the team is not that great...

quote:

---

"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."
"When you look at what [owner Jerry Buss] did for Earvin and what he did for me, big disparity there," Abdul-Jabbar said. "I just think that it's a mindset that's taken over in the organization that I'm of minimal value to the organization and they're doing other things. ...They just don't seem to want to include me in the way they have included other people."

---

Kareem goes into more detail about how he has sacrificed for the Lakers with nothing in return here.