Whenever you take a look at the 1992 Dream Team, you notice that several good players got snubbed from that squad. The most famous name must be Isiah Thomas but people also point out to the fact that Christian Laettner was selected for the team instead of other rising stars or college players.
The biggest name that comes to our minds is Shaquille O’Neal, but the 4x NBA champion doesn’t seem to care that much about not going to Barcelona with the arguably greatest basketball team ever. Talking with the Da Windy City Podcast, Shaq revealed he wasn’t bothered about not going to the Olympics that year since Christian Laettner was a better player than him in college.
“Christian Laettner was better than me in college. He really was so I’m not going to cry about that. Fundamentally he was better. He had a bigger impact at Duke than I had at LSU.”
“I’m just going to go on the record and say that,” O’Neal said, as transcribed by Essentially Sports. “He earned it fair and square, I’m not going to say I should have been cause Duke was winning championships, I was getting knocked it out in the first or second round, therefore he was a better player than I was.”
This wasn’t the first time Shaq addressed this matter. Back in 2012, Shaq talked about this, revealing he was actually pissed with that decision but he realized it was a good pick later.
“I was pissed off. I was jealous. But then I had to come to the realization that I was a more explosive, more powerful player, but Christian Laettner was a little bit more fundamentally sound than I was. Plus he stayed all four years and graduated.
“I just think it helped me grow as a player.”
In the end, Shaq had a better NBA career than Laettner, being considered one of the best centers of all time, winning four NBA champions, becoming an MVP and racking up more and more accolades. It’s not like not going to Barcelona in 1992 prevents him from going to sleep.
