SUMMARY
- Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant played for eight years on the Los Angeles Lakers winning three titles.
- Shaq moved the Miami and won another title with Dwyane Wade.
Shaquille O’Neal had an incredible career that spanned over 19 years. His resume is still very impressive when you compare them to most athletes of today’s generation. Along the way, Big Diesel played alongside a set of fierce competitors that ruled the NBA at one point. He’s probably played with the most number of superstars in the league which is why he was also very successful in winning.
On this day, in 1993, rookie Shaquille O’Neal has a monster performance against the Dallas Mavericks…
38 points
13 rebounds
7 blocks
14-16 FG (87.5% FG)He’s the only rookie to record that stat line, doing it twice in the same week.
No rookie has topped his 87.5% FG in a… pic.twitter.com/XYpsfSa8Rb
— ORLmuse (@ORLmuse) January 23, 2024
Shaq last peaked while he played for the Miami Heat alongside Dwyane Wade. In 2006, the prolific scorer and big-body defender won his fourth title. Prior to joining the Heat, he won three championships with the Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant. However, the transition from college to professional basketball tends to be extremely tough. Most rookies rely on having a set of well-experienced veterans to groom them. And O’Neal has a long list of individuals he would like to thank.
Shaquille O’Neal never fails to acknowledge his teammates
The 2000 NBA Most Valuable Player of the Year has been making waves in the sports entertainment sector, hosting his own podcast series and making appearances on multiple others. Shaq’s takes are often very informative and interesting which is why his latest appearance on The Old Man and the Three Podcast alongside JJ Reddick was a hit.
Reddick perfectly used the story of Batman and Alfred to describe how role players make a massive impact on a superstar’s rise. Shaq agreed to what Reddick had to say as he added, “This is why I always promote the others… Shaq has four rings, but couldn’t have did it without my guys, definitely. I know I could have probably carried one, just me being dominant, dominant, dominant. But listen, Big Shot Bob [Robert Horry], Rick Fox, B-Shaw [Brian Shaw], Derek Fisher, Glen Rice, GP [Gary Payton], White Chocolate [Jason Williams], Udonis Haslem, like those guys helped me be Superman.”
O’Neal also recalled when John Paxson of the 1993 Chicago Bulls championship helped Michael Jordan win his third title. Had Paxson missed the game-winning three-pointer, MJ would have had one less ring, and Charles Barkley would’ve not faced the never-ending criticism for going ringless.
Kobe Bryant didn’t want to be second to Shaquille O’Neal
Interestingly, Shaquille O’Neal never mentioned Kobe Bryant on his list of Alfreds he had during his career. Before jumping to any conclusion, it wasn’t out of hate that he excluded Bryant but the 5x NBA Champion simply wanted to be his own person. Bryant always experienced that he wanted to be the greatest ever to do it, and that also meant he didn’t want to give Shaq a chance to dethrone him.
“The crazy thing about him is I wanted him to be an Alfred. But he didn’t want it. He was like, ‘Nope, I’m Batman.’ And it worked to our advantage because when you got two guys that wan to take over that’s 60 points right there,” Shaq said. Their hunger is what helped the Los Angeles Lakers rank in the top five in the league in offensive rating during their championship seasons. But O’Neal had to leave to let Bryant fulfill his dream.