Immortalized forever
Shaquille O’Neal is about to ascend into Los Angeles Lakers immortality and he got a huge surprise last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live! During his visit to the show, Jimmy hit him with the news that he will have a statue outside of STAPLES Center with icons like Jerry West, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. SHAQ Diesel didn’t want to believe it, but it’s true.
The Lakers announced they will honor O’Neal with the statue and it will be unveiled during the 2016-2017 season.
The big man played eight seasons for the purple and gold and won three championships with the team, which went beastmode with a tandem of himself and Kobe Bryant. Shaq revealed on the show that if he gets inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, he will indeed go in as a Laker. Finalsist will be announced during this year’s NBA All-Star Weekend in Toronto, with inductees being revealed in April and induction ceremony going down in September.
OS REWIND: Shaquille O’Neal & Kobe Bryant Address the State of the NBA