Tag: shaquille o’neal

Shaquille O’Neal agrees that Nets star Kevin Durant’s career is a failure

Shaquille O’Neal agrees that Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant has had a failure of a career.

When one looks at Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant’s career, one will see two championships, two finals MVP awards, and a regular season MVP award. Overall, on paper, he has had an amazing career and is for sure going to the Hall of Fame when he decides to hang up his sneakers.

However, some view Durant’s career a bit differently. Current Hall of Famer Charles Barkley said Durant was a failure for not winning a championship while being “the guy”. His two titles with the Golden State Warriors are not viewed the same as he was playing with the likes of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson out in The Bay Area.

Another Hall of Famer, big man Shaquille O’Neal, agreed that Durant is not viewed as a success in the eyes of the older players due to how he went about winning his championships:

If you go back and look at his career as a best player being the leader, all goes with that too. We were all there. We saw OKC up 3-1. One more game and when you’re the guy, all the pressure goes on you. A lot of people was talking about the bus driver. Chuck was absolutely right. He was not driving the bus in Golden State. You were on the bus. You were sitting up front.

So when guys like us go ‘Woah, woah, woah, woah’ and you win and we don’t respect it, don’t get mad at us. That’s how we feel. This is the attitude that Kevin Durant is gonna say, ‘Whoa, I got this many points and I got this and I got that.’ We’re not talking about that. We’re talking about you, the guy, and in championship moments, can you take it to that next level? We haven’t seen that yet.

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Durant and the Nets will have all eyes on them as they head into the 2022-23 season after a tumultuous summer where the star requested a trade in June, but nothing ever materialized. Brooklyn will have high expectations of winning a title in this upcoming season so this will be another chance for Durant to prove O’Neal and Barkley wrong on the floor.

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Kobe Bryant’s top 100 games: No. 93

On Dr. King day in 2006, Kobe led the Lakers to a victory over Shaquille O’Neal’s Heat while the two took a step toward ending their feud.

After Shaquille O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat in the summer of 2004, the Los Angeles Lakers went from a championship contender to a mediocre team that missed the playoffs the following year.

But something that was just as ugly as the Lakers’ decline was his “relationship” with Kobe Bryant.

The superstar big man spent his first season in Miami periodically throwing shade at his former teammate through the media, implying he was a selfish ball hog and perhaps even an unsavory human being.

On Jan 16. 2006, the Lakers hosted the Heat on Dr. Martin Luther King Day in what was a marquee matchup between the two Hall of Famers.

Whether he was inspired by the former civil rights leader who preached equality and love, or whether it was a classic case of time healing old wounds, O’Neal approached Bryant before tipoff, and the two shook hands and even embraced each other.

Bryant then went out and put forth a strong performance with an efficient 37 points as L.A. overcame Miami, 100-92.

It was the first time in four attempts Bryant’s Lakers had managed to defeat O’Neal’s Heat.

With the first thaw in the supposed superstar feud taking place, Bryant went on to lead the Lakers back to the playoffs where they nearly upset the heavily favored Phoenix Suns that spring. It was the first step in the rehabilitation of his tarnished public image and the team’s fortunes.

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A look at where the sons of NBA legends have gone to college

Bronny James may end up joining the Oregon Ducks in 2023, prompting us to ask: where did the sons of NBA legends end up in the past?

Bronny James, a four-star recruit and the son of NBA superstar LeBron James, is very possibly going to become an Oregon Duck in the 2023-24 season, according to On3. On Tuesday afternoon, the Ducks picked up an expert prediction to land the eldest James son. 

It would be an incredible addition to an already excellent recruiting class for Dana Altman, and James would make the Ducks THE must-watch college basketball team in the nation.

LeBron famously went straight to the NBA out of high school, leaving Bronny without the option of following in his footsteps unless he goes to the G League. Bronny will be far from the first son to diverge from his father’s path at the collegiate level — often because they are not good enough (Michael Jordan’s kids) or, in some cases, because their dad didn’t go anywhere special (like Jordan’s teammate, Scottie Pippen).

Below is a look at the sons of 14 basketball Hall of Famers and where each of them went to school. Coincidentally, many of them ended up playing on the West Coast, including two at that school in Corvallis:

‘And if Charles had left? You’d still have me’: Shaq would’ve supported Charles Barkley if he went to commentate LIV Golf

“So if a chance comes up like this at this age that’s legal – controversial but legal – you gotta look at it.”

Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley are one of the more popular duos on television. Hosts of ‘Inside the NBA’ on TNT, the NBA Hall of Famers have developed a great camaraderie on one of the NBA’s premier pre- and postgame shows.

Yet Barkley almost ended his basketball commentating foray to get into the world of golf.

Rumors swirled for a few weeks about Barkley’s interest in joining LIV Golf as another commentator on its broadcasts, which don’t have a TV sponsor and air on YouTube. Last week at the third LIV Golf event at Trump Bedminster in New Jersey, Barkley played in the pro-am, and he told Golfweek he hadn’t received an offer by the time he finished play.

David Feherty announced following the 150th Open Championship he was joining LIV Golf as a broadcaster, and Barkley would’ve added another colorful, bombastic voice to the broadcast. Yet it would take away from what has become a great pair between O’Neal and Barkley.

So, did Shaq try and talk Sir Charles out of it?

“No. Charles is a dear friend. I would’ve supported him every which way,” O’Neal said in an interview with USA Today. “Charles is one of those legends, like Bill Russell, that didn’t make a lot of money playing. So if a chance comes up like this at this age that’s legal – controversial but legal – you gotta look at it. If he had accepted it, I wouldn’t be mad.

“And if Charles had left? You’d still have me.”

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Every Boston Celtics player appearance on ‘Shaqtin’a Fool’ since 2011

Watch the clip to see the worst (or at least the funniest) of the Celtics over the last decade and a year.

While it might not be an honor to appear on former Boston Celtics big man Shaquille O’Neal‘s “Shaqtin a Fool” segment on TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” a fair number of Boston players making a guest appearance over the years. The segment, for the uninitiated, is effectively the blooper reel of the dumbest, funniest or weirdest things Shaq and company caught on video that week.

Now, YouTuber and Celtics fan videographer Danielle Hobeika put together an all-time compilation of when Celtics players made the show. The list includes Rajon Rondo, Mikael Pietrus, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Kris Humphries, Vitor Faverani, Kelly Olynyk, Jeff Green, Brandon Bass, Isaiah Thomas, Marcus Smart, Terry Rozier, Al Horford, Gerald Green, Jayson Tatum, Daniel Theis, Kemba Walker, Jaylen Brown, and Glen “Big Baby” Davis.

Watch the clip embedded below to see the worst of Boston over the last decade and a year — and try not to drink anything while you watch it.

Check out the Celtics Lab podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

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Shaquille O’Neal sounds off on Kevin Durant’s trade request from Nets

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal decided to roast Kevin Durant while discussing his trade request and questioned his leadership.

The NBA world was shocked to find out that their sharpshooting forward Kevin Durant wanted out of the organization, weeks later basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal sounded off on his qualities as a leader.

On a segment of the Rich Eisen Show, NBA great O’Neal was asked if the Boston Celtics should trade away some of their young talent for Durant.

“No,” O’Neal said emphatically. “Not at all, you have a young nucleus that we can build and we cant trust, I’d keep them. I don’t know what everybody else was watching but Jaylen was hanging pretty tough with Durant.”

O’Neal didn’t hold back as he questioned Durant’s leadership saying:

When you put a house together, you should live in it…You, as a leader, should make it work, but you don’t want to make it work, I guess…You know he’s probably trying to get to a contender. It’s easier that way.

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Shaquille O’Neal urges Russell Westbrook to prove critics wrong

A legendary Lakers big man wants Russell Westbrook to bounce back strong after a season that made him a scapegoat.

Everyone knows that this past season was a rough one for Russell Westbrook.

Although his numbers weren’t bad (18.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game), his flaws caused him to be blamed in hyperbolic fashion for the Los Angeles Lakers failing to reach the play-in tournament.

It seems just about everyone wants him to be gone from the team, even if it were to simply waive him and get nothing in return for him.

But there are a few people who may still be in Westbrook’s corner.

One of them seems to be Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal, who posted an Instagram story with a video compilation that is meant to inspire Westbrook to prove his critics wrong.

Via Fadeaway World:

Screenshot 2022-07-19 at 5.29.06 PM

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CfP_gHlJ7Dm/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=0af773ed-a73c-4f0e-8c38-d256d0449ce9

With trade talks for the Brooklyn Nets’ Kyrie Irving apparently going nowhere and a lack of other options, Westbrook is more and more likely to start the season on the Lakers’ roster.

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Unless something changes, he will have to prove people wrong for the team to be successful.

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On this date: Shaquille O’Neal signs with the Lakers

On July 18, 1996, the Lakers started a new golden era when it signed Shaquille O’Neal, who was then the most dominant big man in the NBA.

After Magic Johnson announced in 1991 that he was retiring due to testing positive for HIV, the Los Angeles Lakers went into a tailspin.

The franchise had boasted perhaps the greatest team in NBA history during the peak of the Showtime era in the mid-1980s, but in the 1990s, it looked like it had lost its luster and good karma.

General manager Jerry West, who was just as competitive as an executive as he was during his Hall of Fame playing career, was determined to get back to the championship level.

He knew his team needed a major superstar, and in the summer of 1996, the biggest one, literally and figuratively, was available: Shaquille O’Neal.

West had to clear lots of cap space even to be able to make an offer to the dominant center. It involved trading the Lakers’ starting center, Vlade Divac, to the Charlotte Hornets for a 17-year-old named Kobe Bryant, a move that was viewed as nothing more than a gamble at the time.

Afterward, the Lakers and Orlando Magic went back and forth in a real-life game of poker, making bigger and bigger offers to O’Neal.

In the end, he felt the Lakers were more appreciative of him. Therefore, he signed a new contract to join the Purple and Gold.

In doing so, O’Neal became the latest of a line of legendary Lakers centers that included George Mikan, Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The big fella would team up with Bryant to lead the team to three straight NBA championships in the early 2000s after it went through some growing pains in the late 1990s.

To this day, although O’Neal played with several other teams after leaving L.A., he is most associated with the squad that is the gold standard of basketball.

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On this date: Lakers trade Shaquille O’Neal to Miami Heat

On July 14, 2004, the Lakers made a trade that was very controversial at the time but turned out very well in the end.

Although Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant were one of the greatest and most successful duos in NBA history, their relationship was always tenuous.

When they were winning three straight world championships, they seemed to be friends, at least on the surface. At other times, they seemed to be at each other’s throats.

By the 2003-04 season, the tension had reached a breaking point. With Bryant nearing free agency, then-owner Dr. Jerry Buss decided it was time to pull the plug and retool around Bryant.

Weeks after the Lakers lost the 2004 NBA Finals in disastrous fashion to the Detroit Pistons, they sent O’Neal to the Miami Heat for Brian Grant, Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, a future first-round pick that became Jordan Farmar and a future second-round pick.

At the time, many Lakers fans were disgusted at the deal, and just about everyone around the league believed L.A. lost the trade and would regret it for many years.

The aftermath was ugly, and it started right away.

For the next three seasons, Bryant was left to wallow with a very weak supporting cast. Somehow, he willed the Lakers to the playoffs in 2006 and 2007, but he was public enemy No. 1. Most believed he ran O’Neal out of town as part of an egotistical power grab.

But the trade was justified when, in February 2008, L.A. landed All-Star big man Pau Gasol in a trade with the Memphis Grizzlies.

The team was instantly a title contender again, and it reached the championship series three straight times right away, winning back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010.

Dr. Buss, being a real estate magnate and standout poker player, clearly knew what he was doing in the summer of 2004.

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Lakers Summer League games just got way more interesting with Shaq and Scottie Pippen’s sons playing together

The Lakers’ Summer League team should be fun!

One thing about the Los Angeles Lakers is that they’ll never fail to bring in some big names. I mean, it is Hollywood after all. And how many bigger names are there in the NBA community than O’Neal and Pippen?

The Lakers traded into Thursday’s draft and took Max Christie with the 35th pick — a nice get for them, all things considered. But the Lakers’ two most noteworthy gets came at the draft’s conclusion when it was announced the Lakers had signed both Shareef O’Neal and Scotty Pippen Jr.

Of course, Shareef O’Neal is the son of Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal. And yes, Scotty Pippen Jr. is exactly who you think it is — the son of Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen.

Pippen Jr. will be one of the Lakers’ two-way players, while O’Neal gets a shot to compete for the purple and gold during the summer league.

These moves are already outstanding ones for the Lakers’ marketing teams but could also be great on-court additions should O’Neal and Pippen Jr. play anything like their old men.

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