This coming season, the Los Angeles Lakers will honor former coach Pat Riley by unveiling a statue of him just outside of Crypto.com Arena. It will be revealed on Feb. 22, 2026, when the Boston Celtics, who are likely Riley’s least favorite team, come to town to play the Lakers.
Riley coached the Lakers for nine years, starting in the 1981-82 season. He inherited a roster that had won the 1980 NBA championship, and he turned it from a one-hit wonder into arguably the greatest team in league history. The Purple and Gold won four world titles under Riley’s coaching, including two against the Celtics during mid-decade.
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Mychal Thompson, one of his former players on the Lakers, is glad Riley is finally getting a statue some 35 years after leaving the franchise. But Thompson had one important warning about the potential design of the statue.
Recently, the Miami Heat, the team Riley has worked for since 1995, unveiled a statue of Wade. It was widely panned for lacking a strong resemblance to the legendary shooting guard, who won three rings in 16 NBA seasons.
Thompson, the No. 1 overall pick in the 1978 draft, was traded to the Lakers midway through the 1986-87 season. The big man’s strong inside play on both ends of the floor helped make up for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s decline and allowed the team to win its last two championships of Riley’s tenure with it in 1987 and 1988.
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Today, fans know Thompson as the loquacious and colorful color commentator on the Lakers’ radio broadcasts. He works alongside play-by-play man John Ireland.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Mychal Thompson gives warning about Pat Riley’s upcoming Lakers statue