LA Lakers honour Shaq with statue

Mar 25, 2017 - 2:32 AM The Los Angeles Lakers have honoured Shaquille O'Neal with a bronze statue of the Hall of Fame centre who helped them to three consecutive NBA titles.

With his youngest son pulling a gold braided cord to drop a shiny gold curtain, O'Neal laid eyes upon something bigger than the big man himself.

The statue of him completing a monster dunk with his legs in the air is nine feet (2.74m) and weighs 1200 pounds (544kg).

It is suspended 10 feet in the air, attached to the side of Staples Center.

O'Neal, who won three titles with the Lakers from 2000 to 2002, is 7-foot-1 (2.16m) and was 325 pounds (147kg) in his playing days.

Purple and gold confetti and streamers rained down on O'Neal, his family and some of the biggest names in NBA history, including Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kobe Bryant, all of whom spoke at the hour-long ceremony on Friday.

Source: AAP