The LeBron James statue debate has taken over NBA social media this week, and Danny Green is not staying quiet about it.
Green, who won the 2020 NBA championship alongside James in the Lakers’ bubble title run, made his position crystal clear on a recent podcast appearance. For the three-time champion, the answer is not even close to a debate.
Danny Green Gets Blunt On Potential LeBron James Statue
“He gonna get a statue in Miami, Cleveland. If he don’t get one ya’ll are fu*king bugging. Any team he’s played for, if you don’t give that man a statue, did he play for the Lakers? So then, yes. Every team he’s played for, if you don’t give him a statue you are fu*king bugging,” Green said.
Danny Green says the Lakers will be disrespecting LeBron James if they don’t give him a statue in LA:
“He gonna get a statue in Miami, Cleveland. If he don’t get one y’all are fu*king bugging. Any team he’s played for, if you don’t give that man a statue, did he play for the… pic.twitter.com/iqterYWDDx
— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) May 15, 2026
Green’s comments come amid a genuinely divided conversation. On the Road Trippin’ Show this week, Kendrick Perkins and Channing Frye went at it over the exact same topic. Perkins, firmly on the pro-statue side, said James deserves one outside Crypto.com Arena without question.
Frye pushed back, not on whether James deserves one in principle, but on whether the Lakers fanbase would ever actually accept it. “Lakers fans don’t accept him,” Frye said, arguing that statues at that franchise are reserved for players who gave their best years to the purple and gold, not free agents who arrived later on in their career.
Jeanie Buss was caught at the airport this week by entertainment producer Joe Andaloro and asked directly whether James deserved a statue. She burst out laughing before composing herself. “He’s still playing. We don’t talk about statues till someone retires,” Buss said, pivoting instead to the jersey retirement conversation and confirming that his number will absolutely be retired once he is inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Pat Riley, who received his own statue in February 2026, set a reminder of just how high the organizational bar is. Every figure currently immortalized outside that building spent significant portions of their careers winning multiple championships in Los Angeles.
James spent eight seasons with the Lakers, delivered the 2020 championship and Finals MVP, broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time scoring record while wearing a Lakers jersey, and made the All-Star team every single year he was in Los Angeles.
Green argues that those facts alone make the answer obvious. Whether the Lakers ultimately agree when the time actually comes is a different conversation. But Danny Green is not waiting around to see how it goes.
