The Los Angeles Lakers won 20 of the 24 games and now, after an uneven start to the season, asks the NBA fans wondering if the team is a candidate in the legitimate championship. We are about to discover their next four games on the road, starting on Saturday when the team plays the franchise currently in possession of the trophy, the Boston Celtics.
In 2020, LeBron James and Anthony Davis led Purple and Gold to championship n ° 17, passing the franchise on a par with Boston for the most part of the history of the League. Last summer, Boston broke this tie. Now, behind the game of James and the new Luka Soleur Sole, we can't help but be passionate about the possibility that these two long -standing competitors slip it once again in June. Perhaps if James beats the Celtics hated in the NBA final, fans of Lakers Lakers will agree to have a statue at Star Plaza.
Maybe.
This is a delicate subject given that real estate is normally reserved for players who have done more years with the franchise than James. Although it is his 22nd season in the NBA, it is only his seventh with the Lakers. Thus, when he scored more points than Kobe Bryant, collected more assists than Magic Johnson and caught more rebounds than Elgin Baylor – he did not do everything for Lakers.
The problem is that all the other franchise championships have won since the passage from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in 1960 – starting with Jerry West and the 1972 team – is represented by a statue of this outdoor place in Crypto.com Arena. It would be strange not to immortalize championship n ° 17 in the same way. It takes a high level of cognitive dissonance to be both proud of an accomplishment and not wanting to recognize who has accomplished it.
Even if this was resolved in favor of James' honor, there is the broader question: what are the statues for?
I was in college when the emblematic Joe Louis Monument “The Fist” was dedicated to downtown Detroit. At the time, I only saw the 24 -foot bronze statue through the goal of boxing. In high school, I learned that Louis was not born in the city of Motor but in Lafayette, in Alberta, in 1914. His family moved to Michigan in the 1920s, coinciding with the rise of the KKK.
It was the first time that I started to see the complete scope of the great migration and to understand why most families in my neighborhood had roots in the south. As I went to the university, “The Fist” reminded me of boxing less and the resilience of blacks more.
Just like I rarely think of football when I attend the Arizona Cardinal Games and passes in front of the Statue of Pat Tillmanwho left the NFL in May 2002 to enlist in the army shortly after the September 11 attacks. He abandoned millions to defend this country, and he made the ultimate sacrifice. It registers with me more than his playing career. I suspect that I am not alone.
Whether it is “The Fist”, the Tillman Memorial or an Oscar sculpture from the Hoya – the American Mexican child of the East the which has become an international superstar – the history of a statue is always more than the game.
And yes, the previous one of a Star Plaza statue is the one that generally requires more years than maybe James will finally go into a Lakers uniform. Shaquille O'Neal was with the team for only eight seasons, but half of them ended in the NBA final. Half of James in Los Angeles lost in the first round or worse. And there are many reasons why the thought of a statue of James next to the Lakers Showtime simply feels bad.
Unless you thought of the broader question: what the statues are for.
James' mother was at the age of 16. His father was not in the photo. Having grown up in poverty, he experienced housing insecurity and moved to 10 times during a calendar year before the age of 9. During his first year at the Lycée, Sports Illustrated named it “L'elu”. Today, he has issues in the Liverpool FC, the Boston Red Sox and the major league pickleball. He is the first NBA player to become a billionaire by playing. And he is the first 40 -year -old who should lead a team to a championship.
We will see how realistic these expectations are during this next trip on the road. Three of the four teams they face – Milwaukee, Denver and Boston – won the title since the Lakers did in 2020 and combined won 64% of their home matches. At the end of this section, fans of the will either be slightly deflated, or think of the parade routes. Associated with Dononic, which led Dallas to the final last year, James seems ready to add even more distinctions to his basketball CV. If the year ends with n ° 18, not only will be tied again with Boston for most titles, but also James will become a larger part of the Lakers folklore.
Perhaps unconditional fans will want to see the top scorer in the history of the NBA represented on the square.
Although curiously, the longer he plays, the less I think of him as a great player. Now he represents one of the most inspiring stories about the realization of the American dream that America has ever seen.
