In the modern-day NBA, super teams have become quite normal than they were a few decades ago. Nowadays, players have a lot more control over their careers and can choose their destination with ease in free agency.
Even with that control, joining a super team is considered a bit too much by most retired NBA players. Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal is among them, and he has been quite vocal about it.
During his career, O’Neal was never really part of a super team, but he was part of several dynamic duos.
He recently talked about not respecting players who are part of super teams. He shared these thoughts on the Big Shot Bob podcast.
“The words I hate is this new era. We watched the era before us… and we all competed. Guys are getting real lazy and real cute and then they want guys like me and Big Shot Bob to show them some respect. Trust me, if I knew it was okay to team up after Houston busting my ass in 94, I would have went and played next to Hakeem … I would have went to go play with Tim Duncan and Dave Robinson … But I was like nope. I’m checking my leaks, licking my wounds, and I want to beat these dudes and we did. Rob got seven, I got four but whenever we saw something, we hate.”
Can you imagine a team that featured the likes of Shaq, Hakeem Olajuwon, and David Robinson? That roster would have been too lethal.
As for the super teams in the modern era, LeBron James is widely credited for starting this new era. Back in 2010, James joined forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to bring a few NBA titles to the city of Miami.
The Warriors followed the trend and assembled a fabulous team of their own when Kevin Durant joined the Dubs in 2017.
The most recent super teams in the league are the Los Angeles Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets. Both teams are stacked, and LBJ & KD are the leaders of the two sides. So it is quite plausible that Shaq indirectly called out James and Durant for forming these teams featuring multiple All-Star caliber players to win NBA championships.
