Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is upset because they don’t have a statue of him in front of Staples Center in Los Angeles.
What stunned me is that there are already five statues outside the 12-year-old arena — Jerry West, Magic Johnson, Chick Hearn, Wayne Gretzky and Oscar De La Hoya.
Verizon Center in Washington was built two years earlier, and all they’ve got outside that place are the pigeons that waddle around the sidewalk.
Sports statues are all the rage these days. They are popping up everywhere, so much so that people like Abdul-Jabbar are wondering, “Where’s mine?”
Sometimes others speak on behalf of the athlete. President Obama invited Bill Russell to the White House to award him the Presidential Medal of Freedom several months ago and said, “I hope that one day in the streets of Boston, children will look up at a statue built not only to Bill Russell the player, but Bill Russell the man.”
Done. The Celtics announced recently they will erect a statue for Russell, who will take his place in the city with their other sports legends — Ted Williams outside Fenway Park, Bobby Orr outside the TD Garden and Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie outside Conte Forum.
Really, statues have become the new bobbleheads. It is growth industry.
At U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, the home of the White Sox, you can find statues of Harold Baines, Minnie Minoso, Nellie Fox, Carlton Fisk, Luis Aparicio and owner Charles Comiskey.
Go to San Francisco, and you’ll see statues of Orlando Cepeda, Willie Mays, Juan Marichal and Willie McCovey. No Barry Bonds, though. Don’t hold your breath for that one.
Locally, we are a little limited on the sports statue count.
In Baltimore, there is the Babe Ruth statue outside Camden Yards, and aluminum numbers honoring those Orioles — Cal Ripken, Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer and Earl Weaver — whose numbers have been retired by the franchise.
In Washington, there were no such honors for this area’s sports legends until 2009 when statues honoring three baseball greats — Frank Howard, Walter Johnson and Josh Gibson — were erected at Nationals Park.
Those statues may have frightened anyone else from putting up a statue for a Washington sports legends. Those three monuments were universally criticized for their bizarre “Star Wars” character look.
There is a bust/plaque honoring the founder and owner of the franchise, George Preston Marshall, outside RFK Stadium. But no one really wants it anymore. It was supposed to be moved to his hometown in West Virginia a few years ago, but that fell through.
Washington — a city of statues and monuments — is way behind on the sports statue count. So let me suggest a step in the right direction to fill that void: legendary Redskins Hall of Fame quarterback Sammy Baugh, perhaps outside FedEx Field.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
