Shaquille O’Neal is regarded as one of the most dominant players of all time. Evidently, O’Neal had a tendency to bully his opponents on the floor. There were times when Shaq got a bit out of hand.
Former NBA star Gary Payton got very close to experiencing that from Shaquille O’Neal. However, Payton’s mother stopped O’Neal from beating down her son. O’Neal shared the story in a podcast, and it’s certainly worth a listen.
“Gary gets personal, and he means it,” the big man explained. “I like to be personal for play. Like, Gary will about your mama, your grandmama and won’t apologize and will keep bringing it up. Gary will talk about your woman, your girlfriend, everything. … And then when you talk to a guy like Gary, you got to keep talking cause Gary ain’t gonna shut up. I wanted to fight Gary one time after the game because he was talking trash.”
O’Neal first explained why he wanted to teach Payton a lesson. However, the Diesel’s heart melted when Payton’s mother stepped in.
“But Mama Payton gave me this look,” Shaq continued. “Mama Payton gave me this look. I was like, ‘Yes, ma’am. Yes, ma’am. ‘Don’t you be talking to my boy like that.’ ‘Yes, ma’am.'”
Payton may laugh at the story now, but at the time, he must have been at least a little scared after hearing Shaq wanted to beat him down. Thanks to Mama Payton, the situation was resolved rather well.
Shaquille O’Neal And Gary Payton Became Teammates Later In Their Careers
Superstars having rivalries between themselves is not a new thing in the NBA. There have been many rivalries that have later turned into friendship, and that was the case between Shaq and Payton as well.
Payton was part of the Los Angeles Lakers’ attempt at creating a superteam in 2003 by pairing up Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Karl Malone, and of course, Gary Payton.
The Glove may have been out of his prime by then, but he was still a decent player in his position. So much so that Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal fought with Phil Jackson to bring Payton to the team.
While the Lakers did reach the 2004 NBA Finals, they were outplayed by the Detroit Pistons pretty easily. Payton would go on to leave the Lakers and join the Boston Celtics after that one season.
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