Shaquille O’Neal is regarded as the most dominant player in history. Shaq had incredible size and strength, but also the speed a player of his stature should not possess. He used those attributes to get whatever he wanted on the court and became one of the greatest players in history. But one of his former teammates believes Shaq would have been even more dangerous if he was mean-spirited.
During an appearance on the ‘All The Smoke’ podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Kevin Garnett noted that Shaq would have been terrifying if he was meaner. He jokingly thanked Shaq’s mom for raising him right and spoke about his first experience meeting Shaq. KG then delivered a pretty spot-on impression of Shaq, before noting that he was a great person.
“Shaq could have been a lot more mean than he was. We thank god Shaq was raised right! Yall haven’t played against a pissed off Shaq. Shaq getting pissed – whaaattt?… Thank you mama O’Neal, thank you!. You’ve seen Shaq the first time, Shaq came out, I was like ‘God!’. I kept looking up. Meanwhile, I’m seven foot y’all… Diesel’s good people man.”
Garnett and Shaq played against each other for many years and even faced each other as rivals during the 2004 Western Conference Finals. Their meetings became less frequent after that, as Shaq bounced around the league. The two players would never face each other in a playoff series ever again.
In the final season of his career, Shaq played alongside Kevin Garnett on the Celtics, as he looked to try and get one final NBA championship before his career ended. But Shaq and the Celtics were knocked out in the Eastern Conference Finals by Shaq’s former teammate LeBron James, who had joined the Miami Heat that season. It is clear that Garnett has an incredible amount of respect for Shaquille O’Neal.
