Shaquille O’Neal and Jaylen Brown had a hilarious exchange after Game 2 of the 2024 NBA Finals. Fans who have been following this postseason will know that the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks have matched up in the Finals with the hopes of winning a coveted NBA championship.
Since retiring from the league, O’Neal has established himself as a sports analyst and as an important member of the media. After all, several players in the modern generation have an enormous sense of respect and admiration for Shaq. After Game 2 had concluded, Shaq had a small conversation with Jaylen Brown which generated quite a lot of laughter from the crew surrounding them.
Shaquille O’Neal urges Jaylen Brown to put aside his ego and focus on the team
Even before the NBA Finals began, there was a lot of discussion among NBA experts and fans alike regarding the two stars of the Boston Celtics. Although Jayson Tatum is considered by many to be the best player on his team and the face of his franchise, Jaylen Brown is also an elite talent who has performed better than Tatum on several occasions.
This has led to a lot of people stirring up debates regarding who is the better player and the true leader of the team. Since Tatum has not been playing as well as Brown in the Finals so far, this debate has only gained momentum in recent times. After the Celtics defeated the Mavericks in Game 2 of the 2024 NBA Finals, Shaq sat down with Jaylen Brown and urged him to keep those senseless debates to the side.
“Do not get fixated on useless titles. Do what you gotta do. It doesn’t matter who’s who or they say who’s what. It ain’t time for all that right now do what you gotta do and get it done.”
Shaq is SO REAL for saying this to JB:
Shaq: “Don’t get fixated on useless [rankings]… get the job done”
JB: “Yessir I understand”
Shaq: “They’re trying to separate you and JT by saying who’s better… it don’t matter”
JB: “Yessir, I agree”pic.twitter.com/WKSgGIaS0s
— CelticsUnite (@CelticsUnite18) June 10, 2024
To this, Jaylen Brown responded with “I understand.” However, when questioned by the other media members surrounding him, Brown humorously revealed that he truly did not understand what Shaq meant. As a result, Shaq clarified his stance, “They’re trying to separate you and your guy(Tatum) by saying who’s better. I’m saying don’t worry about useless titles.”
It is unclear if Brown truly did not understand what Shaq meant the first time around. Nonetheless, this provided a sense of humor to this apparent confusion among the Celtics. While it is easy for Shaquille O’Neal to tell Brown how to deal with this situation presently, the 4x NBA champion dealt with a similar situation during his career as a player.
Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal dealt with a similar situation
3 of Shaq’s NBA championships came when he was playing alongside Kobe Bryant with the Los Angeles Lakers. Although they were considered one of the best duos in NBA history, the two of them were at odds due to their differing personalities and outlooks towards the game. Both of them wanted to be the leaders of the team. This forced the Lakers to break up this duo.
However, there are also quite a few differences between the two duos in question. Shaq was much older than Kobe and clearly in his prime while Bryant was just a young and upcoming star during their multiple championship runs. On the other hand, the age gap and skill level between Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown is not as revealing. In any case, fans are left wondering if the Celtics duo will be able to finally win a title together.