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Shaquille O'Neal has been a staunch defender of LeBron James' move from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Philadelphia 76ers this offseason, squashing any criticism of NBA's all-time leading scorer being a ring-chaser.
"The man is not chasing rings. The man has already gotten rings the right way," O'Neal told FTW and USA TODAY Sports. "Towards the end of your career, if you could join up and help somebody else get a ring and continue to get rings, I call it ring continuancy."
But one thing the Lakers legend won't do is sugar-coat James' time with the purple and gold. One championship was good, but it wasn't good enough to put him at the big table with past Lakers champions. "The good thing for LeBron, he did win one," Shaq said. "But you know, Kareem got six, Magic got five, Kobe got five, I got four, Rambis got three. So you know, he's at the party, but he's not on stage."
Below is our full conversation with O'Neal, including details on General Mills' No. 1 Biggest Fan contest, his thoughts on what's next for Stephen Curry and more.
This Q&A is condensed and edited for clarity.
SO: "It's not underappreciated. It's called the business of basketball. They use you for what they can, and then when it's time for them do something else, go do something else. Only a few players get to [stay with one team]... But the rest of us regular people, we come in, we do what we're supposed to do. Hopefully, we do it well, so we can be remembered, and then we move on.
"There's no knock against LeBron, but Father Time towards the end of your career has never gotten paid. No player towards the end of his career. I mean, Mike probably did it, but we owed Mike that money... So when they brought Luka in, I already knew what was going on. It's like, hey, this guy's young. He's 23-24, we got another 10 years with him. Let's focus on him... The good thing for LeBron, he did win one. But you know, Kareem got six, Magic got five, Kobe got five, I got four, Rambis got three. So you know, he's at the party, but he's not on stage."
SO: "It's a jab at everybody. The man's not chasing rings. The man has already gotten rings the right way. Towards the end of your career, if you can join up and help somebody else get a ring and continue to get rings, I call it ring continuancy. Not ring chasing. Ring chasing would be 'I don't have a ring. I've been trying to do it all. Now I'm gonna get with a super team to win the ring.'
"Now, somebody did ring-chasing during the middle of their career -- I'm not gonna say no names -- and got him a couple rings. But LeBron, hey, played the right way, put the team together in Miami. A lot of people didn't like that, but it worked. Went back to Cleveland, got one. Got one in L.A. ... I actually did it, when I went to play in Boston, I was like, 'hey, Kobe got five. Let me try to get five. Let me see if I can help help Paul Pierce and them. I wasn't going up there to be the man. I was just going to do my part and help him get a ring and help me get number five. Because when it's over, I would love to say I have five instead of four. But now I can only say I have four."
SO: "Nope. And plus, there ain't no centers in the East. So they'll be all right. I mean, I remember last year in the playoffs, sitting there watching [Alex] Caruso guard Victor Wembanyama. I said, 'What the hell is going on? When they say positionless basketball, they mean that now. So they believe it. So they probably won't have a backup. But LeBron and Edgecombe, those guys are strong enough to hold up any adequate center. A great center, they probably can't play like that. But you know, a guy that's just doing picking and rolling and popping, a guy like a Mitchell Robinson, LeBron can guard a Mitchell Robinson."
SO: "I got away from this being professional, working all the time, but for the past 17 years, I'm taking it back to the old school. Every now and then, which is a lot, I like a cold bowl of cereal. I've always been a Lucky Charms guy, so General Mills came to me and said, hey, we want to give away $20,000 to one lucky fan. And they have to show us that they are the biggest cereal fan. So we want people to go to www.biggestfancontest.com, and show us why you deserve to be the biggest cereal fan."
SO: "Lucky Charms Chicken. A big old cold bowl of cereal. Because while everybody's going left, I would go right. No problem with the league today. It's a copycat league, and you got guys playing the same. So, people always say [Nikola Jokic]. Joker would have brought you outside. OK, but when Joker shoot the three, I'm running right by him so I could post up in lane. And guess what? He'll hit a few, but he's gonna be thinking about missing and getting down trying to trying to stop me from slamming.
So, already know what I'm doing, and I'm guaranteeing I'm gonna hit more twos than you hit threes. And then you always talk about, oh well, you gotta guard him. Not gonna be in the game long enough, cause guess what? You gotta guard me on that post, cause I'm not doing no face up and pick and popping. I'm going right at your chest, and you're gonna have to foul. Then you're gonna be on the bench, and then I'm gonna dominate even more. So by the time you come in and hit your two threes, I'ma already be 20 points out, and you're gonna be catching up."
SO: "If you're with an organization that appreciates you and loves you, stay there, because he's still getting paid. It's about winning, but it's also getting paid too. So it's also about both. I think more people would choose that final paycheck than they do a ring, unless you made so much money and now you need to get a ring. But I'm sure if they would have offered LeBron 25 million or more, he'd still be a Laker."
SO: "I think the best teams to become a dynasty would be OKC and the Spurs. Young, mastered their system, plays the right way, and got that one player that can take over a game. This was a no disrespect to the Knicks, but I haven't seen this many ifs in a long time -- if Boston was healthy, if Philly was healthy, Jason Tatum would have played the whole time. If J-Dub would have played -- it was so many ifs. Joker, if Gordon was playing. It was so many ifs that worked out in the Knicks favor, so I'd just like to see everybody healthy and may the best team win."
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Q&A: Shaq says LeBron James is 'at the party but not on stage' with Lakers legends
Continue reading...
"The man is not chasing rings. The man has already gotten rings the right way," O'Neal told FTW and USA TODAY Sports. "Towards the end of your career, if you could join up and help somebody else get a ring and continue to get rings, I call it ring continuancy."
But one thing the Lakers legend won't do is sugar-coat James' time with the purple and gold. One championship was good, but it wasn't good enough to put him at the big table with past Lakers champions. "The good thing for LeBron, he did win one," Shaq said. "But you know, Kareem got six, Magic got five, Kobe got five, I got four, Rambis got three. So you know, he's at the party, but he's not on stage."
Below is our full conversation with O'Neal, including details on General Mills' No. 1 Biggest Fan contest, his thoughts on what's next for Stephen Curry and more.
This Q&A is condensed and edited for clarity.
LeBron's time with the Lakers feels underappreciated. How do you think it'll be remembered?
SO: "It's not underappreciated. It's called the business of basketball. They use you for what they can, and then when it's time for them do something else, go do something else. Only a few players get to [stay with one team]... But the rest of us regular people, we come in, we do what we're supposed to do. Hopefully, we do it well, so we can be remembered, and then we move on.
"There's no knock against LeBron, but Father Time towards the end of your career has never gotten paid. No player towards the end of his career. I mean, Mike probably did it, but we owed Mike that money... So when they brought Luka in, I already knew what was going on. It's like, hey, this guy's young. He's 23-24, we got another 10 years with him. Let's focus on him... The good thing for LeBron, he did win one. But you know, Kareem got six, Magic got five, Kobe got five, I got four, Rambis got three. So you know, he's at the party, but he's not on stage."
You say it's funny how people with no rings are calling him a ring-chaser. Was that really just a jab at your your co-host Charles Barkley?
SO: "It's a jab at everybody. The man's not chasing rings. The man has already gotten rings the right way. Towards the end of your career, if you can join up and help somebody else get a ring and continue to get rings, I call it ring continuancy. Not ring chasing. Ring chasing would be 'I don't have a ring. I've been trying to do it all. Now I'm gonna get with a super team to win the ring.'
"Now, somebody did ring-chasing during the middle of their career -- I'm not gonna say no names -- and got him a couple rings. But LeBron, hey, played the right way, put the team together in Miami. A lot of people didn't like that, but it worked. Went back to Cleveland, got one. Got one in L.A. ... I actually did it, when I went to play in Boston, I was like, 'hey, Kobe got five. Let me try to get five. Let me see if I can help help Paul Pierce and them. I wasn't going up there to be the man. I was just going to do my part and help him get a ring and help me get number five. Because when it's over, I would love to say I have five instead of four. But now I can only say I have four."
The Sixers still need a backup center. Can you give them 10 minutes a game?
SO: "Nope. And plus, there ain't no centers in the East. So they'll be all right. I mean, I remember last year in the playoffs, sitting there watching [Alex] Caruso guard Victor Wembanyama. I said, 'What the hell is going on? When they say positionless basketball, they mean that now. So they believe it. So they probably won't have a backup. But LeBron and Edgecombe, those guys are strong enough to hold up any adequate center. A great center, they probably can't play like that. But you know, a guy that's just doing picking and rolling and popping, a guy like a Mitchell Robinson, LeBron can guard a Mitchell Robinson."
Can you tell us about your partnership with General Mills?
SO: "I got away from this being professional, working all the time, but for the past 17 years, I'm taking it back to the old school. Every now and then, which is a lot, I like a cold bowl of cereal. I've always been a Lucky Charms guy, so General Mills came to me and said, hey, we want to give away $20,000 to one lucky fan. And they have to show us that they are the biggest cereal fan. So we want people to go to www.biggestfancontest.com, and show us why you deserve to be the biggest cereal fan."
What do you think you would do in your prime in this era of the NBA?
SO: "Lucky Charms Chicken. A big old cold bowl of cereal. Because while everybody's going left, I would go right. No problem with the league today. It's a copycat league, and you got guys playing the same. So, people always say [Nikola Jokic]. Joker would have brought you outside. OK, but when Joker shoot the three, I'm running right by him so I could post up in lane. And guess what? He'll hit a few, but he's gonna be thinking about missing and getting down trying to trying to stop me from slamming.
So, already know what I'm doing, and I'm guaranteeing I'm gonna hit more twos than you hit threes. And then you always talk about, oh well, you gotta guard him. Not gonna be in the game long enough, cause guess what? You gotta guard me on that post, cause I'm not doing no face up and pick and popping. I'm going right at your chest, and you're gonna have to foul. Then you're gonna be on the bench, and then I'm gonna dominate even more. So by the time you come in and hit your two threes, I'ma already be 20 points out, and you're gonna be catching up."
How would you approach these last few years of your career if you were Steph Curry?
SO: "If you're with an organization that appreciates you and loves you, stay there, because he's still getting paid. It's about winning, but it's also getting paid too. So it's also about both. I think more people would choose that final paycheck than they do a ring, unless you made so much money and now you need to get a ring. But I'm sure if they would have offered LeBron 25 million or more, he'd still be a Laker."
Is this current era of parity good for the NBA or do we need another dynasty to emerge?
SO: "I think the best teams to become a dynasty would be OKC and the Spurs. Young, mastered their system, plays the right way, and got that one player that can take over a game. This was a no disrespect to the Knicks, but I haven't seen this many ifs in a long time -- if Boston was healthy, if Philly was healthy, Jason Tatum would have played the whole time. If J-Dub would have played -- it was so many ifs. Joker, if Gordon was playing. It was so many ifs that worked out in the Knicks favor, so I'd just like to see everybody healthy and may the best team win."
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Q&A: Shaq says LeBron James is 'at the party but not on stage' with Lakers legends
Continue reading...
