Should the Lakers honor Phil Jackson with a statue?

This week’s Lakers mailbag is headlined by a conversation of whether the team should honor Phil Jackson with either a statue or retirement banner.

Well, a lot changed on a dime for the Lakers at the end of last week when the team’s reported interest in Dan Hurley surfaced. As a result, a number of the questions went a bit out of date or at least have to be tabled for now as they pertained to JJ Redick being the presumptive coach-to-be.

Don’t worry, though. We still have plenty of questions, and even some coach-related ones still!

This is interesting. I looked into it and a number of coaches have “jerseys” retired by teams, including Phil Jackson in Chicago. As for statues, Red Auerbach does have one in Boston, but that appears to be the only one.

Honestly, I wouldn’t be against it for the Lakers. I think honoring with a banner akin to Chick Hearn with the other retired jerseys would be appropriate, too. The thing is, though, that anything you do for Jackson, you’d basically need to do for Pat Riley, no?

While Riley has one less title, is the line in the sand five titles to receive those honors? Riles was also the figurehead of arguably the greatest era of Lakers basketball.

Circling back to Jackson, considering their past, I don’t think the team should or would do anything to honor him so long as LeBron is on the team.

But if the Lakers did honor Jackson either with a statue or a banner, I certainly wouldn’t have any complaints.

What a fun question.

My first thought was Alex Caruso, but he technically wasn’t drafted by the Lakers so I’m not allowing that. My next thought was that if you could guarantee his health, then my answer would be Lonzo Ball with ease.

There were few Baby Lakers I enjoyed watching more than Lonzo. He’s such a unique player in the NBA as a whole and seeing his passing and playmaking with the Lakers was a joy. And by the time he ended his time in New Orleans and at the start of his run in Chicago, his 3-point shooting was incredible.

A healthy Lonzo alongside Austin Reaves is a really fun duo.

Going to focus on the first question here, mainly because I’m not sure NIL has much of an impact on the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, which is what’s determining the minimum age for the draft.

Instead, let’s talk about state starting fives. There are a couple of states that jump to mind right away, assuming we’re basing this on where they were born.

Ohio would have LeBron James and Steph Curry and it’s hard to imagine the other three names mattering. Illinois, and specifically Chicago, would have Isiah Thomas, Dwyane Wade and Anthony Davis. Michigan would have Magic Johnson, Draymond Green and Darvin Ham (kidding).

My vote, though, would either go to Pennsylvania, who have Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain and Pete Maravich among their starting five, or New York with Michael Jordan, Dr. J and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Who would you pick? Let me know down below!

Thanks for the questions this week. With the expected news this week, I’m sure you guys will have plenty of questions for next week, so be sure to be on the lookout for our mailbag questions piece.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.