Nearly 23 Years After Retirement, The NBA Career Points Leader Is Finally Honored.
Friday afternoon at LA Live, the inventor of the Sky-Hook and the NBA top scorer ever with over 38,000 points was finally honored (re-read that) with a bronze statue that will sit in front of staples center. Lakers greats, Jerry West and Magic Johnson have already achieved this honor as Jabbar will now join them on Chick Hearn Court every time you’re about to head into the arena. Lakers legends such as Magic Johnson, Pat Riley, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and even Jack Nicholson were on hand at the event with more numerous greats from the league to honor their friend. Kareem spoke briefly and said
“Having lived my life and had the experiences I’ve had, I can understand now what a man like Lou Gehrig means when he considers himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”
Kareem had career highlights winning six NBA titles (five of which with the Lakers), six-time NBA MVP honors, nominated to the All-NBA first-team 10-times and still holding the record for most All-Star appearances with 19. The statue was created by Julie Rotblatt Amrany and Omri Amrany as over the course of three years the relationship with the Lakers had strained with Andrew Bynum not wanting to work with him in 2009, then in 2011 as well when they decided to not renew his contract as Lakers special assistant which spilled into the tabloids. But for now, while that’s behind most of us, he’s finally honored as some of us feel this should’ve happened a decade(s) ago.
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