Tag: shaquille o’neal

Shaquille O’Neal vs. Rudy Gobert: A detailed history and timeline of their beef

Hopefully, we see Gobert and O’Neal play each other in the weirdest one-on-one game of all time.

What would happen if four-time NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal and three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert played each other, especially if it was back when Shaq was in his prime?

The Utah Jazz big man is listed at 7-foot-1 and 245 pounds with a 7-foot-9 wingspan. Shaq, meanwhile, was listed at 7-foot-1 and 325 pounds (although he has said that it neared 400 at times) with a reported 7-foot-7 wingspan.

Over the last few years, O’Neal has taken plenty of cheap shots at Gobert, with the latest coming this week (see below).

Now, it’s gotten to a point where we might have to settle the score.

The perfect person to weigh in on this was Dwyane Wade. Not only did Wade win a title with Shaq in 2006, but he often appears on TNT alongside O’Neal. He also recently purchased a minority stake in the Jazz franchise.

Wade suggested that Gobert and O’Neal settle their differences on the court at the 2023 NBA All-Star Game, which will be held at the Vivint Arena in Utah.

Hopefully, we see Gobert and O’Neal play each other in the weirdest one-on-one game of all time.

Even if both were in their prime, neither player ever had a jump shot, and neither player could ever dribble. O’Neal retired from professional basketball over ten years ago, and it’s hard to imagine he’s in the physical condition to compete against an All-Star caliber player.

It probably won’t happen, but we can hope it does! Until then, let’s take a look at the history of the drama between these two guys.

Shaquille O’Neal has clear coaching preference for Lakers

Shaquille O’Neal thinks one man is clearly the best candidate to become the Lakers’ next head coach.

For the Los Angeles Lakers, picking the right head coach to succeed Frank Vogel will be of paramount importance, as it will help dictate all other decisions they make this offseason.

Several candidates have emerged, and observers are somewhat split on who would be the best pick.

Legendary Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal hasn’t been shy about making suggestions for his former team, and he has one specific coaching candidate in mind who he thinks is the best one.

Via Lakers Daily:

“One of those candidates is former Golden State Warriors head coach Mark Jackson. Jackson spent three years as head coach of the Warriors and compiled a record of 121-109 during his time there.

“One former Laker who seems to be a strong proponent of Jackson is none other than Laker legend Shaquille O’Neal.

“O’Neal recently told Reuters in an exclusive interview that Jackson would be his pick to lead next year’s iteration of the Lakers.

“’Mark Jackson helped build Golden State before Steve Kerr took it to the next level,’ he said. ‘He made it a very sexy brand to watch, so I’m sure he can do that with LeBron [James] and Russ (Russell Westbrook).’”

Jackson is certainly a polarizing candidate. He does deserve some credit for starting what the Warriors have been able to build over the last several years.

In his last season with the team (2013-14), he got the Warriors to finish 51-31.

However, he was fired after they lost in seven games in the first round of the NBA playoffs to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Steve Kerr took over for him, and the very next season they won 67 games and the world championship. Clearly, Kerr has been a much better coach for Stephen Curry and crew than Jackson was.

Reportedly, a big reason why Jackson was dismissed was that he had trouble getting along with many people on the team. His extremely devout Christian faith has been cited as a culprit, as critics have said that it became a wedge that divided the Golden State locker room.

The Lakers certainly need not just a strong tactician to guide James and crew back to title contention, but also a strong voice who will unite the locker room under one vision and one mission.

[mm-video type=video id=01g0jepezkgdhnre4cx5 playlist_id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01g0jepezkgdhnre4cx5/01g0jepezkgdhnre4cx5-c8b4960d11ac658bb641fa01fc8bf8a4.jpg]

[listicle id=81717]

Shaquille O’Neal wants Lakers to keep Russell Westbrook

The Lakers’ legendary center from the late 1990s and early 2000s has some suggestions for their roster.

Although it is generally believed that the Los Angeles Lakers are about to seriously shop Russell Westbrook, there are a few people who believe they should keep the nine-time All-Star.

One of those observers is Shaquille O’Neal, the legendary Lakers center.

He said so while also talking about how the rest of the team needs to get younger to compensate for the fact that Westbrook is 33 and LeBron James is 37.

Via Lakers Daily:

“After a wildly disappointing 2021-22 campaign, the team is going to need to make some changes this summer in order to contend next season.

“Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal recently offered his take on how L.A. should approach things. He thinks the team should keep its trio of LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook intact and add some youth around those guys.

“’I think they definitely have to get younger,’ O’Neal told Reuters.

“’So if they can keep LeBron, Russell and AD, everyone else needs to be very young. You can’t have five or six guys in their upper 30s because the league is getting younger and faster.’”

The biggest reasons most would argue L.A. needs to deal Westbrook are his contract, which will pay him $47 million next season and make it difficult for the team to upgrade its roster, and the tension between him and his teammates and coaches.

The Lakers were also one of the oldest teams in NBA history this year, and the lack of youth and athleticism interfered with their ability to be a decent, let alone a great defensive team.

[mm-video type=video id=01g0jepezkgdhnre4cx5 playlist_id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01g0jepezkgdhnre4cx5/01g0jepezkgdhnre4cx5-c8b4960d11ac658bb641fa01fc8bf8a4.jpg]

[listicle id=81717]

The players who have been swept the most times in NBA playoffs history

HoopsHype shows the 11 players who have been swept the most times in NBA playoff history.

Making it to the NBA playoffs is not easy. And winning games once there is even more difficult. Just ask the players on the list below made up of the men who have been swept the most times in NBA playoff history.

Shockingly enough, there are some legends on this list, including one from Spain and one who is considered one of the most dominant centers of all time.

Pau Gasol is one of two players to have been swept six times in their career. Gasol got swept as a member of three different teams, with the Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs. Same with Shaquille O’Neal, who was swept as a member of the Lakers, Orlando Magic and Miami Heat.

Gasol was swept out of the first round of the playoffs four times while O’Neal in the first round just twice.

Al Horford could join the Six Sweeps club this season if the Boston Celtics get swept this year, as it has happened to him in the playoffs five times already. Three of them came at the hands of LeBron James, who terrorized the Atlanta Hawks like no other.

Check out the list below.

The players who have been swept the most times in NBA playoffs history

Making it to the NBA playoffs is not easy. And winning games once there is even more difficult. Just ask the players on the list below made up of the men who have been swept the most times in NBA playoff history.

Shockingly enough, there are some legends on this list, including one from Spain and one who is considered one of the most dominant centers of all time.

Pau Gasol is one of two players to have been swept six times in their career. Gasol got swept as a member of three different teams, with the Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs. Same with Shaquille O’Neal, who was swept as a member of the Lakers, Orlando Magic and Miami Heat.

Gasol was swept out of the first round of the playoffs four times while O’Neal in the first round just twice.

Al Horford could join the Six Sweeps club this season if the Boston Celtics get swept this year, as it has happened to him in the playoffs five times already. Three of them came at the hands of LeBron James, who terrorized the Atlanta Hawks like no other.

Check out the list below.

On this date: Shaquille O’Neal goes beast mode versus Kings

In the opening game of the 2000 NBA playoffs, Shaquille O’Neal led the Lakers to a win over the Kings with a king-sized performance.

The Los Angeles Lakers, under new head coach Phil Jackson, finished the 1999-2000 NBA season with a league-best 67-15 record, but as the playoffs opened, there was a bit of anxiety surrounding the team.

Over the past few years, it had flamed out meekly in the postseason, and its players had developed an underhanded sense of self-pity as a result.

In L.A.’s playoff opener versus the Sacramento Kings, Shaquille O’Neal, the league MVP that year, would look to set a winning tone for his team.

Coached by Rick Adelman, the Kings were not your normal eighth-seeded team. In an era where most teams walked the ball upcourt on every possession and played as slowly as possible, the Kings were taking the NBA back to the future with what was then considered a gimmicky and innovative style of play.

They pushed the ball on almost every possession, and Adelman gave his players the green light to shoot the 3-pointer whenever they thought they had a good enough look, no matter how much time was on the shot clock.

It was a modern twist on the way teams played in the 1980s during the Lakers’ Showtime era, but today it is considered the “normal” way to play.

O’Neal wasn’t fazed though, as he devoured Chris Webber and company en route to 46 points, 17 rebounds and five blocked shots.

The Lakers won the contest, 117-107, and although they lost Game 3 and Game 4 in Sacramento, they took the deciding fifth game by a wide margin at Staples Center.

With O’Neal putting the finishing touches on perhaps the most dominant individual season in basketball history, L.A. would win its first NBA world championship in a dozen years by knocking off the Pacers in six games in the NBA Finals.

[mm-video type=video id=01g0jepezkgdhnre4cx5 playlist_id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01g0jepezkgdhnre4cx5/01g0jepezkgdhnre4cx5-c8b4960d11ac658bb641fa01fc8bf8a4.jpg]

[listicle id=81572]

Former Lakers superstar wants to coach the team – with one caveat

One of the greatest Lakers players ever is interested in coaching his former team, but he has a big demand that would need to be met.

Shaquille O’Neal, one of the greatest players in Los Angeles Lakers history, and perhaps the big dominant big man in NBA history – says he’s interested in the team’s head coaching job.

Yes, he has never even come close to being a head coach, but he reportedly is credited with helping one of L.A.’s best players.

When L.A. played the Orlando Magic during the regular season, the legendary center happened to be sitting courtside, and he talked to Russell Westbrook about making some tweaks to his game.

Westbrook, who was reportedly hard to instruct and didn’t seem to get along with head coach Frank Vogel, seemed receptive to O’Neal’s advice.

Via Silver Screen and Roll:

“It was just talking about changing speeds and different things,” Westbrook said. “When somebody like Shaq is seeing and watching the game, I’m always big on listening to my elders and listening to the ones that were before me. Shaq was giving me some good advice about changing speeds at different times coming up the floor, which was very helpful not just in that game but as I watch myself moving forward and trying to continue doing that the rest of the year.”

However, O’Neal said on his podcast “The Big Podcast With Shaq” that he would have a very steep asking price to become L.A.’s next head coach.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CcoL_1hvTFO/

It’s pretty safe to say that the chances of the Lakers hiring O’Neal are slim to none.

[mm-video type=video id=01g0jepezkgdhnre4cx5 playlist_id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01g0jepezkgdhnre4cx5/01g0jepezkgdhnre4cx5-c8b4960d11ac658bb641fa01fc8bf8a4.jpg]

[listicle id=81529]

Shaquille O’Neal le dice a Kyrie Irving que ‘aguante vara’ después que la estrella de los Nets les pintó dedo a los

A Kyrie Irving no le pareció la forma en la que los fans de Boston lo estaban tratando durante el Juego 1 del domingo en el que los Nets perdieron contra los Celtics en los cuartos de final de la Conferencia del este. De hecho, dejó súper claro que …

A Kyrie Irving no le pareció la forma en la que los fans de Boston lo estaban tratando durante el Juego 1 del domingo en el que los Nets perdieron contra los Celtics en los cuartos de final de la Conferencia del este.

De hecho, dejó súper claro que ese había sido el caso. Primero, durante el tiempo que estuvo jugando y en el que anotó 39 puntos, les pintó dedo varias veces a los fans. Después, echó más leña al comentar sobre sus interacciones al terminar el partido.

“[Si] alguien me dice groserías, voy a verlo directamente a los ojos y veré si realmente es su intención”, concluyó. “La mayoría de las veces no lo es”.

El panel del programa NBA on TNT , en el que están Charles Barkley y Shaquille O’Neal, tuvo una reacción muy diferente. En resumen, le dijeron a Irving que lo supere.

Traducción: “¿Saben lo que va a pasar en el Juego 2? Lo van a provocar aún más.”.
@SHAQ y Chuck comentando sobre los comentarios de Kyrie Irving después del juego y sus interacciones con los fans de Celtics.

 

No queremos tomar partido, pero si Irving quiere pagar todas las multas en las que posiblemente incurrirá por regresarle los insultos a los fans, es su problema. Eso tampoco quiere decir que nadie más puede juzgarlo por eso. Hacer esas payasadas puede hacerlo sentir bien en ese momento, pero como comentaron Charles y Shaq, los fans groseros no son nada nuevo en esta liga y es obvio que después de escuchar lo que Irving dijo el domingo se pondrán aún más creativos.

Veremos si Kyrie es capaz de enfrentar a los Celtics y sus aficionados en el Juego 2 la noche de este miércoles.

 

Artículo traducido por Ana Lucía Toledo

[lawrence-related id=42198]

Shaquille O’Neal blasts Lakers over how they fired Frank Vogel

Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal dislikes how his old team handled the firing of Frank Vogel, and he had some choice words about it.

Perhaps the Los Angeles Lakers were right to fire head coach Frank Vogel earlier this week. Perhaps they weren’t.

But the way they fired him – by apparently leaking news of his dismissal just after their final regular season game and a full day before they informed Vogel – was wrong, and many around the NBA agree.

One of the people who disliked the Lakers’ handling of Vogel’s exit is team legend Shaquille O’Neal.

On his podcast, “The Big Podcast with Shaq,” he not only criticized his former team, but he even had a message for any other coaches who are thinking about joining the Purple and Gold.

Via Lakers Daily:

“‘Yeah, he was done dirty ’cause that’s how I heard I was getting traded,’ said O’Neal before explaining how he felt disrespected by the Lakers during his playing days.

“O’Neal later went on to implore other coaches to not ‘waste your time’ with the Lakers. The legendary big man also said that if he were Vogel, he would’ve quit before officially getting fired by the franchise.”

There are several candidates for the job according to league insiders, including Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder, the Philadelphia 76ers’ Doc Rivers and former Golden State Warriors head coach Mark Jackson, whom LeBron James would reportedly be “enthused” about.

But the way L.A. leaked the news about Vogel’s firing before telling him face-to-face has seemingly left a bad taste in the mouths of people around the league, including Snyder, whose interest in coming to the Lakers is reportedly lower as a result.

[mm-video type=video id=01g0jepezkgdhnre4cx5 playlist_id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01g0jepezkgdhnre4cx5/01g0jepezkgdhnre4cx5-c8b4960d11ac658bb641fa01fc8bf8a4.jpg]

[listicle id=81299]

Raptors star Fred VanVleet compares Joel Embiid to Michael Jordan, Shaq

Toronto Raptors star Fred VanVleet compares Joel Embiid to Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal.

As the Philadelphia 76ers prepare for the Toronto Raptors in Game 1 of their Round 1 series on Saturday, now is the time where both sides go through their preparation for one another and they understand their opponent.

The Sixers understand that the Raptors will muck the game up and they will make life tough on them while Toronto understands that they are going to have to contend with an MVP candidate in the form of Joel Embiid.

The big fella led the league in scoring at 30.6 points per game and he is going to be a huge issue for the Raptors to deal with. In three games against Toronto, Embiid averaged 29 points on 46.6% shooting.

Raptors star guard Fred VanVleet was asked about Embiid and he compared the MVP candidate to the great Michael Jordan as well as Shaquille O’Neal and Kevin Durant.

They’re not wild comparisons from VanVleet. Despite standing at 7-feet tall, Embiid is one of the rare players in the league who can score at all three levels and he is able to take somebody off the dribble. There are not a lot of players his size who can do that and that is why he gets the respect he receives on a daily basis.

This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

[listicle id=62744]

[lawrence-related id=62756,62747,62750]