He was an all-time dominant post presence, and a deserving three-consecutive Finals MVP with the Los Angeles Lakers.
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The Players’ Tribune contributor and current New York Knicks caretaker Phil Jackson just dropped another behind the scenes bombshell about his former star pupil, Shaquille O’Neal, who will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday Night.
Like Lakers fans, Kupchak conceded that he often wondered how many more championships the pairing of Bryant and O’Neal could have won.
Remember that Shaquille O’Neal-Kobe Bryant feud?
It’s useless to cry over spilled milk and missed connections, but I know I won’t be the only one lamenting while watching Shaq and Kobe highlight videos on YouTube for the foreseeable future. “A guy that would push me”.
When Shaq reached the part of his speech about his fellow Lakers superstar, he thanked Bryant for having pushed him to win three rings in LA. On Friday, O’Neal’s presence dominated the stage as thoroughly as he dominated the paint. I played against him in high school I coached him in the pros. “I’d like to thank Steve Kerr”.
“They’re definitely going to be exciting”, O’Neal said Thursday, “but I don’t see them being a contender for a while. All the other times, I found out from loud-ass Stephen A. Smith on ESPN”. He knew how to make his teammates better players.
“Unlike Erving, who also is presenting Allen Iverson for enshrinement, unlike Thomas, who also is presenting legendary coach John McLendon, and unlike Bill Russell, who also is presenting Yao Ming, Mourning will be in Springfield to present only one inductee “ the adversary who became ally. Back in 2012, shortly after he retired, O’Neal did a commercial for Buick in which he sat in a LaCrosse and proclaimed that the company had made a hybrid even he could fit in.
“It means I put a lot of hard work, and it means a lot to be mentioned with the elites”, O’Neal said. I was like, I fit.
O’Neal also had plenty of good things to say about the three seasons he played at LSU under former coach Dale Brown before becoming the No. 1 overall pick in the 1992 NBA Draft by the Orlando Magic.
“My father, Sgt. Harrison, was a disciplinarian, ” O’Neal said.
I got on the bus and found Shaq there, reading “Siddhartha”. ‘Shaq, bend your knees. Shaq was more interested in my next year than his own – always a team player in the most unusual ways.
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“There will never be anybody like Shaquille O’Neal, ever. He said I was ‘lobbying for a contract extension when we have two Hall of Famers playing pretty much for free”. Not only did I want to be the best big man, I wanted to be the most dominant.
