The Los Angeles Lakers will honor Phil Jackson -- who won five of his unprecedented 11 NBA coaching titles in L.A. -- with a statue next season, the team announced Tuesday.
"Phil Jackson defines championship basketball for a reason," Lakers acting governor Jeanie Buss said in a statement. "His masterful approach to coaching brought out the best in some of the greatest athletes to ever play the game. After he accepted my dad's invitation to join the Lakers, Phil's unmatched creativity and commitment to excellence restored our championship legacy, bringing five titles and setting a standard of excellence for generations to come.
"It is a great joy to be able to mark that achievement with the statue he so richly deserves."
The statue will be unveiled April 9, 2027, before the Lakers' game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Jackson, 80, coached the Lakers for 11 seasons across two stints (1999-2004, 2005-11), winning three championships running his patented triangle offense through Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal as the team's primary stars and two more with Bryant and Pau Gasol as L.A.'s lynchpins.
Jackson guided the Lakers to titles in five of seven trips to the NBA Finals, winning in three-peat fashion from 2000-02 and adding back-to-back rings in 2009 and 2010.
Jackson was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007 and was named as one of the 15 greatest coaches in NBA history when the league revealed its coaching selections as part of its 75th anniversary season.
Jackson will be the ninth member of the Lakers with a statue at Star Plaza outside Crypto.com Arena, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elgin Baylor, Chick Hearn, Magic Johnson, Pat Riley, Jerry West, O'Neal and Bryant (who has two).
The statue was commissioned by the Lakers to be designed and created by Omri Amrany of Rotblatt Amrany Studio.
