It is safe to say that Shaquille O’Neal knows a thing or two about what it takes to win an NBA championship. Shaq won 4 titles during his 19 seasons in the league, with 3 of them coming with the Lakers when he led them to that incredible three-peat, and he then proceeded to win another in 2006 with the Miami Heat.
It is pretty hard to forget that he won all those titles, as he loves to bring it up all the time on Inside the NBA. It might get a bit annoying at times, but considering how difficult it is to even win one title in the league, it is fair to say that he has earned the right to brag about it.
Shaquille O’Neal Explained What Is The Most Important Thing For Building A Championship Team
While one can argue on a lot of things when it comes to Shaq, the one thing that cannot be disputed is that he is a winner through and through. Taking that into account, he was asked what is the important thing for building a championship team when he was on the “PBD” podcast recently, and here’s what O’Neal had to say.
(starts at 36:32 mark):
“The relationship between ownership, coaches, and the superstars. Like I had enough power to go in there and say, ‘I need a power forward, I’m getting doubled, when I kick it to the guy he can’t hit that shot. Go get me Horace Grant. He’s having problems with the Bulls, I need him.’… The fact that we had that relationship, we had the respect for each other, I was always able to go upstairs and do that.”
O’Neal mentioned how he had a role in the Lakers bringing in the likes of Robert Horry and Rick Fox, who played their part in helping LA have all the success that they ended up having during that time.
Shaq and Kobe Bryant were the main acts, though, and Shaq during this episode also spoke about Bryant’s mindset, as he described that it was alien-like. Kobe was very different as compared to O’Neal, and it was somewhat inevitable that the two would end up clashing with each other as time went by. The two of them were at odds with each other for a very long time, but they, fortunately, buried the hatchet before Bryant tragically passed away in 2020. O’Neal, just like so many others, misses the great man a lot, and he paid an emotional tribute to Kobe on his birthday last month.
