The Los Angeles Lakers honored Shaquille O’Neal with a statue outside of Staples Center on Friday night, and many Lakers greats were on hand for the ceremony.
We’ll first take a look at the statue being unveiled:
A nine-foot, 1,200-pound statue of Shaq throwing down a huge a dunk is a pretty perfect way to honor the Lakers’ three-time NBA Finals MVP.
And the speeches given by other Lakers legends were pretty great too.
Magic Johnson was not in attendance, but sent along this three-minute video message:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had jokes about Shaq and Kobe Bryant’s relationship (more on that later):
Jerry West said he loves Shaq “like a son”:
But the highlight had to be Kobe, as it’s been well-documented that he and Shaq had a bit of a rocky relationship over the years. Kobe called Shaq the “most dominant player [he’s] ever seen”, and finished his speech by telling Shaq “much love to you my brother.”
And then of course, Shaq’s speech:
[NBATV]