Kareem Feels Snubbed

[moiso]

There is no statue of me, either

What's up with this statue stuff?  Are people with statues like the new Hall of Fame?

[Fafnir]

It didn't seem right yesterday when i heard Kareem basically whine about the statue situation...thats why i waited 24hrs.to make sure that we had the full story.After listening today at Mike Greenberg there is much more to the story.Kareem had many other issues going on with the Lakers,from things happening on the team plane rides to cutting his pay ck as a big man coach.Yesterday just seemed out of character for Kareem to be that upset over...the nonexistence of a statue in his honor is just the straw that broke the camel's back.

All of his other gripes are basically him wanting special treatment from the Lakers, same thing.

Not really,when someone cut your salary...how do you know his "gripes"aren't legit?

I don't, but given how little coaching experience he has I'm not surprised they don't want to pay him top dollar. Especially if he was brought in mainly as a move upon Bynum's request not at the behest of Jackson's staff or the front office.

The plane ticket thing is just pettiness. He wanted a better seat on the plane when he was going to the Finals in 2008-2009.

[housecall]

It didn't seem right yesterday when i heard Kareem basically whine about the statue situation...thats why i waited 24hrs.to make sure that we had the full story.After listening today at Mike Greenberg there is much more to the story.Kareem had many other issues going on with the Lakers,from things happening on the team plane rides to cutting his pay ck as a big man coach.Yesterday just seemed out of character for Kareem to be that upset over...the nonexistence of a statue in his honor is just the straw that broke the camel's back.

All of his other gripes are basically him wanting special treatment from the Lakers, same thing.

Not really,when someone cut your salary...how do you know his "gripes"aren't legit?

I don't, but given how little coaching experience he has I'm not surprised they don't want to pay him top dollar. Especially if he was brought in mainly as a move upon Bynum's request not at the behest of Jackson's staff or the front office.

The plane ticket thing is just pettiness. He wanted a better seat on the plane when he was going to the Finals in 2008-2009.

First,those were just two things on a list,and his coaching experience had zero to do with the salary cut.When you opened up with "I don't"...enough said.

[Fafnir]

It didn't seem right yesterday when i heard Kareem basically whine about the statue situation...thats why i waited 24hrs.to make sure that we had the full story.After listening today at Mike Greenberg there is much more to the story.Kareem had many other issues going on with the Lakers,from things happening on the team plane rides to cutting his pay ck as a big man coach.Yesterday just seemed out of character for Kareem to be that upset over...the nonexistence of a statue in his honor is just the straw that broke the camel's back.

All of his other gripes are basically him wanting special treatment from the Lakers, same thing.

Not really,when someone cut your salary...how do you know his "gripes"aren't legit?

I don't, but given how little coaching experience he has I'm not surprised they don't want to pay him top dollar. Especially if he was brought in mainly as a move upon Bynum's request not at the behest of Jackson's staff or the front office.

The plane ticket thing is just pettiness. He wanted a better seat on the plane when he was going to the Finals in 2008-2009.

First,those were just two things on a list,and his coaching experience had zero to do with the salary cut.When you opened up with "I don't"...enough said.

Well you don't either. So I guess neither of us has a valid opinion based on your logic!

All we know is the public spin that both sides have put on it, and Kareem is the only one who's mentioned the salary issue. Personally though I think most employers would be shocked to here that expereince (and probably job performance and duties they give him) doesn't have much to do with salary and salary cut backs.

If you are just going to disagree with me thats fine, but stop it with the "enough said" bunk.

[housecall]

It didn't seem right yesterday when i heard Kareem basically whine about the statue situation...thats why i waited 24hrs.to make sure that we had the full story.After listening today at Mike Greenberg there is much more to the story.Kareem had many other issues going on with the Lakers,from things happening on the team plane rides to cutting his pay ck as a big man coach.Yesterday just seemed out of character for Kareem to be that upset over...the nonexistence of a statue in his honor is just the straw that broke the camel's back.

All of his other gripes are basically him wanting special treatment from the Lakers, same thing.

Not really,when someone cut your salary...how do you know his "gripes"aren't legit?

I don't, but given how little coaching experience he has I'm not surprised they don't want to pay him top dollar. Especially if he was brought in mainly as a move upon Bynum's request not at the behest of Jackson's staff or the front office.

The plane ticket thing is just pettiness. He wanted a better seat on the plane when he was going to the Finals in 2008-2009.

First,those were just two things on a list,and his coaching experience had zero to do with the salary cut.When you opened up with "I don't"...enough said.

Well you don't either. So I guess neither of us has a valid opinion based on your logic!

All we know is the public spin that both sides have put on it, and Kareem is the only one who's mentioned the salary issue. Personally though I think most employers would be shocked to here that expereince (and probably job performance and duties they give him) doesn't have much to do with salary and salary cut backs.

If you are just going to disagree with me thats fine, but stop it with the "enough said" bunk.

As i stated before"enough said" Mr.Global Moderator.

[paulcowens]

The world has too many sports statues already.

[GreenFaith1819]

Kareem was a legend of the game and played with the lakers for more than a decade...he really does deserve a lot of recognition...
i don't know that he needed to talk about the lack of a statue though...it makes him look bad but he doesn't deserve to be mocked...he was not a mercenary like shaq and some others are nowadays...i mean he did play for the lakers for a very long time....someday he will have a statue i imagine

I like this and agree.

Kareem certainly doesn't deserve to be mocked....IMO he's one of maybe the top 3 or 4 centers to ever play the game.

He was not loved quite as much as Magic I suppose...Magic did seem like the face of the franchise those days.

But LA cannot deny that Kareem was the horse that brought them those titles in the 80s.

Kareem was Magnificent...I remember that WCF game VS HOU in 1986..sure LA lost to the Twin Towers, but Man! Did Kareem hold his own or what against those two?

For me, I wouldn't care about the statue - but reading into his comments it seems as if something else is amiss.

I can't blame the guy, at all. I think at the core it is more about respect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njLKmDGwLGE&feature=related

[ManUp]

There's no humble or classy way to ask for a statue.

Bad look for Kareem whining about deserving one.

[Eja117]

There's no humble or classy way to ask for a statue.

Bad look for Kareem whining about deserving one.

But waaaiiitttt a second.    They have Chick Hearn, Oscar De La Hoya, and Wayne Gretzky as statues there in addition to Jerry West and Magic.  Who's next?  Lisa Leslie?  The Williams Sisters?  David Beckham?  Jack Nicholson? 

They don't have to give him a statue but if they don't they shouldn't expect him to show any loyalty to them. 

A team should try to have a good relationship with it's stars.  If they don't like him for whatever reason....maybe he won too many games for them or scored too many points for them or wanted a better seat on the plane or something...then they need to tell him.

Can you imagine this happening in Chicago.  Well we know MJ led us to 6 rings, but he was kinda whinny, so we're going to put out some statues of a Chicago boxer, a hockey player, but screw MJ.

I don't.  The Lakers are dumb. 

[OsirusCeltics]

Magic, Wilt, and Kareem are the only Lakers I truly like
I agree he shouldn't whine about it, seems petty

But gosh, of course he deserves a statue. The most dominant winner only after Bill Russell

[ManUp]

There's no humble or classy way to ask for a statue.

Bad look for Kareem whining about deserving one.

But waaaiiitttt a second.    They have Chick Hearn, Oscar De La Hoya, and Wayne Gretzky as statues there in addition to Jerry West and Magic.  Who's next?  Lisa Leslie?  The Williams Sisters?  David Beckham?  Jack Nicholson? 

They don't have to give him a statue but if they don't they shouldn't expect him to show any loyalty to them. 

A team should try to have a good relationship with it's stars.  If they don't like him for whatever reason....maybe he won too many games for them or scored too many points for them or wanted a better seat on the plane or something...then they need to tell him.

Can you imagine this happening in Chicago.  Well we know MJ led us to 6 rings, but he was kinda whinny, so we're going to put out some statues of a Chicago boxer, a hockey player, but screw MJ.

I don't.  The Lakers are dumb. 

You are right he probably does deserve one considering those guys you listed already have one, but it's hard to sound humble when your asking for a statue.

[Eja117]

There's no humble or classy way to ask for a statue.

Bad look for Kareem whining about deserving one.

But waaaiiitttt a second.    They have Chick Hearn, Oscar De La Hoya, and Wayne Gretzky as statues there in addition to Jerry West and Magic.  Who's next?  Lisa Leslie?  The Williams Sisters?  David Beckham?  Jack Nicholson? 

They don't have to give him a statue but if they don't they shouldn't expect him to show any loyalty to them. 

A team should try to have a good relationship with it's stars.  If they don't like him for whatever reason....maybe he won too many games for them or scored too many points for them or wanted a better seat on the plane or something...then they need to tell him.

Can you imagine this happening in Chicago.  Well we know MJ led us to 6 rings, but he was kinda whinny, so we're going to put out some statues of a Chicago boxer, a hockey player, but screw MJ.

I don't.  The Lakers are dumb. 

You are right he probably does deserve one considering those guys you listed already have one, but it's hard to sound humble when your asking for a statue.

I don't know. False humility isn't good either.   Yeah. I know I'm one of the greatest players ever let alone for this team. I know I have 5 rings, but they put up a statue of Gretzky before me. Doesn't bother me at all. I'm just going to stay humble.


I'd rather hear a young Muhammed Ali screaming he's the greatest of all time after beating Sonny Liston while practically blind in the final minutes.  The guy was just telling the truth as he saw it.  Does he have a statue somewhere?

[Eja117]

It just occurred to me that Kareem is 7 feet tall. If he can't get a good seat on a plane then I don't know who can.

[BUTerrier]

I'm not a huge fan of Kareem (though his cameo in Airplane! was absolutely hilarious), but he has a pretty good point. Kareem was the face of the Lakers for half a decade before Magic joined the team, and while Magic was definitely charismatic, I think we can all agree that Kareem is somewhere between 2 and 4 on the rankings of the all-time best Centers in the NBA (Russell and Wilt would come before him, and I'd place him above Shaq and Mikan and Olajuwon), and when you ask someone to picture a Lakers center, I think the only people who wouldn't say "Kareem" first are the people born after he retired. He has 6 MVP awards, the most points in NBA history, etc. What more does he have to do to warrant a statue? Sure, he didn't coach much for them, and he wasn't a minority owner, but if you wanted to apply that standard Jordan should never have gotten a statue because, hey, what has he done for the Bulls post-playing career?

As for the "mercenary" argument, I don't know if that was made tongue-in-cheek or not, but I'd point out that (a) Kareen was a Laker longer than any of the Celtics players we consider "icons" (except for Russell, Havlicek, and Parish); (b) LA has already created a statue for Wayne Gretzky, a guy who not only played for 4 different teams in his career but who is arguably known more for his time with the Oilers and Rangers than with the Kings; and (c) people have suggested without a hint of irony that KG deserves a statue, and he's not only a "mercenary" by that poster's description, but has been here almost a decade less than Kareem was with the Lakers.