NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal has played alongside many great young leaders during his NBA career, ranging from Kobe Bryant to Dwyane Wade. But as Diesel explained on the “BIG Podcast,” LeBron James is the best of them all and he even admitted to some level of jealousy watching the King’s rise to stardom.
“LeBron was probably the best young leader I’ve seen. And I was kinda jealous of him because he got to do stuff I could never do,” said Shaq. “Coach could be like, ‘Hey man we practicing at 10’ and LeBron would be like, ‘No we practicing at 12’ and the coach would be like, ‘Alright we practicing at 12.’ He got to bring his family members on the plane and people on the plane. I was like, ‘I’ve been the man for a long time I never really had this much power!'”
Shaquille O’Neal was only teammates with LeBron during the 2009-2010 campaign and he only played 53 games that season. After spending his best moments with the Magic and Lakers, O’Neal was a shell of himself at that point, at 37 years old and in the second-to-last season of his career. The Cavaliers were good during the regular season, but they collapsed in the playoffs against the Boston Celtics, who went on to advance to the NBA Finals.
That season, LeBron was just 25 years old but he was already emerging as one of the best players in the game. Leading like a longtime veteran, James set the tone for the Cavaliers both on the court and in the locker room and it uplifted the performances of everyone around him. That leadership is still on display over a decade later and it’s the only thing keeping the Lakers alive in a brutal Western Conference bracket.
LeBron James Had The Ultimate Power
Shaquille O’Neal had a lot of power on his teams back in the day and he often and he could pretty much do whatever he wanted without fear of consequence. With the Lakers, for example, he was known to pull cruel and wild pranks on his teammates that often involved leaving a massive mess. He was also notoriously out of shape, and yet never really got punished for it so long as his play held up on the court.
Despite the privileges, however, Shaq was caught off guard when he saw the kind of power LeBron had on the Cavaliers. With averages of 27.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 7.0 assists per game, LeBron is the kind of superstar who could change the entire trajectory of a franchise, and that’s exactly what he did when he arrived on the Cavaliers.
Over time, he accumulated more and more authority as the team tried to accommodate his every whim. By the end of his first stint with the Cavaliers, James wore several hats as a player, coach, part-time GM, and de-facto leader of the Cavaliers. For a while, that arrangement worked for both LeBron and the Cavaliers, but when LeBron got tired of losing in the summer of 2010, he knew that his best chance was to head to South Beach and make history alongside Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
While James did not enjoy the same kind of power and influence in Miami (he tried and failed to get Erik Spoelstra fired), he was able to win several championships before going back home and delivering on his promise to the fans. All the while, he had the entire league in his grasp, and he still has control today as the face of the Lakers and the entire NBA.
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