By admin 
With LeBron James’ Los Angeles Lakers career over, the discussion now shifts to whether LBJ deserves a statue in Los Angeles. Some say Bron does because he brought the Lakers back to relevance after Kobe’s retirement and then won a championship along the way, albeit a bubble title. Others, however, say he did not play too long in L.A. to deserve one, and he did not win enough titles to merit a bronze likeness.
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Former Purple & Gold player Matt Barnes did not say which side of the fence he belongs to. However, Barnes said he would be happy if James got one but would also perfectly understand if he didn’t.
“That’s one of the greatest players ever to play. But I think the Lakers hang their hat on championship banners and not that one is nothing, but there’s guys that have won several that don’t have it.”
Does 1 ring + historic greatness = a Laker statue alongside Magic, Kareem, and Kobe?
Matt Barnes breaks down why a LeBron James statue in LA isn’t a guarantee, telling #WORDSWITHSCOOP that purple & gold royalty is built on multiple championship banners:
“If he gets it,… https://t.co/WEpIXpxXtopic.twitter.com/t9L3gdyqQn
– Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson (@ScoopB) September 16, 2026
LeBron won a bubble title for the Lakers
There’s no question that LeBron is one of the best to do it, if not the best ever. In fact, the current GOAT debate goes back and forth between him and Michael Jordan. However, while James has four NBA championships, only one came with the Lakers, and it was the heavily debated bubble title in 2020.
While the 2020 NBA championship counts as one in the league’s record books, it’s arguably the most doubted and ridiculed title of all time because the entire series was played at Disney World in a bubble environment with no home-and-away games and no fans cheering either squad. The fact that the Lakers did not have a parade because of the pandemic only further diminished the accomplishment.
“It will be very interesting. If he gets it, great. If he doesn’t get it, I understand,” Barnes added.
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B-Scott also used championships as the reason why LBJ doesn’t deserve a statue in L.A.
One of the strongest critics of LeBron not deserving a statue in Los Angeles is former Showtime Lakers guard Byron Scott, who, incidentally, won 3 titles in Purple & Gold, as one of Magic Johnson’s supporting cast pieces on the Showtime Lakers dynasty. According to Scott, most of the players who got a statue in L.A. are “long lifers” who won multiple titles with the Lakers, and James is neither.
“No, no statue. One championship in six, seven years – I don’t know how many years he’s been in L.A. right now, but I think if he gets another one, then he has a chance. But right now, if you look at the players that have statues in front of the Crypto.com, these are long lifers. They’ve been with the Lakers for almost their entire career, and they’ve had multiple championships,”
When you look at who has statues in L.A., however, there is no one absolute set of criteria, not championships as Barnes said or rings and length of tenure as Scott argued. LeBron played the same number of years as Shaquille O’Neal but has fewer titles.
King James has one championship like Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, but wasn’t a “long lifer” like them. So his case is indeed interesting. However, perhaps what trumps everything is that by breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record, he ensured the record would stay in Purple & Gold for a long time, if not forever.
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This story was originally published September 17, 2026 at 12:47 AM.