Shaquille O’Neal is not afraid of giving hot takes whenever he has the chance, but now the 4x NBA champion took things to the next level when he claimed prime Los Angeles Lakers would beat the Chicago Bulls of Michael Jordan.
He first talked with Ariel Helwani of ESPN, remembering how he grew up idolizing Jordan and how scared he was to play against MJ when he made it to the league. Moreover, he agreed with Helwani when the journalist said he felt Shaq’s three-peat Lakers would have beaten Jordan’s Bulls in their prime.
“Of course, yes. Easily,” Shaq replied. “I would have killed Luc Longley, Cartwright. So, the fact that was me and my free-throw shoot. Now the question is with the Lakers in their prime and Chicago in their prime, is Phil Jackson with us? [Jackson with the Bulls] would have tried the ‘Hack A Shaq’ so I’d still have my 28, 29, but the key would have been free throws.”
Then he raised his bet and posted a picture on Instagram with two starting lineups, one of the Lakers with Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Anthony Davis and himself against the Chicago Bulls with Derrick Rose, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Artis Gilmore and Dennis Rodman.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_BqQCOF2Vy
“Lakers four games to two, yup I said it might even be a sweep,” was the caption of the pic.
While some fans agreed with O’Neal, some diehard Bulls followers tried to make the case for their teams. We’ll never know what would have happened if these two clashed in the Finals, but for Shaq the answer is clear.
One could say the Lakers win every matchup except for the shooting guard position, but the NBA has demonstrated over and over that any team, regardless of its power and its names, can get beaten at any time.
