James Harden’s stint with the Brooklyn Nets was surprisingly short. But there is no reason to discuss it anymore since Harden has already moved forward in his career. After weeks of uncertainty, the former MVP was finally traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in place of Ben Simmons.
Following the trade, Harden formed a formidable superstar duo alongside Joel Embiid. Knowing how well Embiid is playing this season, adding Harden to that, makes it even scarier for opponents.
So far in the few games that the two superstars have played together, that has been the case. Fans have been so impressed with the newly formed duo that they have started to compare them with other all-time great duos.
In particular, the chatter has been around whether the Embiid-Harden duo can even reach the level of the incredible duo of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. Now, that seems like a stretch.
Kobe and Shaq played together for almost a decade, the Sixers’ duo hasn’t even played a season together, let alone a decade. Adding to that is the fact that Kobe-Shaq helped the Purple and Golde win three consecutive NBA Finals.
It feels like O’Neal is aware of this as he recently shut down the comparisons about the same in a recent interview.
Via Essentially Sports:
“We won three out of four… No. No. Hell, no. Not after one year. Me and Kobe had eight years of damage together. No, not even close. Stop it. Listen, NO, H NO, and F NO.”
Looking at Shaq’s reaction to the claims, it is quite obvious that Diesel took offense to these comparisons.
Honestly, Shaq has all the right to feel this way since it is way too early to make such comparisons. Maybe in the future, that can change but until then let’s not jump ahead of ourselves.
