Kareem Can't Be Serious

There are some stories you hear that make you just say..."Really?"

How full of one's self would one need to be to believe that the organization you worked for "owed" you something after your career with them was finished?  That's the question I'm asking of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the former Los Angeles Laker great, and NBA's all-time leading scorer.  Abdul-Jabbar very publicly criticized his former team/employer for...get this...not putting up a statue of him outside the home of the Lakers, the Staples Center in Los Angeles.  Yup...you read that right.

The Staples Center has five statues outside: Jerry West, Magic Johnson, Wayne Gretzky, Chick Hearn, and Oscar De La Hoya.  Although he had an incredible career, and finished as the leading scorer in NBA history, what entitles anyone to state that they deserve anything like that?  Hank Aaron was one of the greatest baseball players of all time, and until a few years ago, was baseball's all-time home run king.  I've never heard of Hank Aaron demanding anything similar to what Kareem is asking for.  I've also never heard the great Mario Lemiuex telling the Pittsburgh Penguins that he deserves a shrine in front of the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh.

What makes great players great is the fact that many of them don't act the part.  This week, baseball lost one of it's greatest players in Harmon Killebrew.  What made Harmon a great player, to me, was that he never wanted to talk about Harmon.  He only wanted to talk about you, or the team.  Those are the types of players that deserve statues.

When you look at Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, there is no doubt that, had he kept his mouth shut, the Lakers would've eventually erected a statue for him.  It's hard not to do something to immortalize the greatest scorer in the game's history.  For them to put one up now, it would almost appear that they would be doing it to satisfy him, as opposed to honoring him.  Is that really what he's looking for?  Apparently, it is.  As long as there's a statue of him, he'll be happy.  As far as I'm concerned though, Kareem has lost a lot of respect in my book.