Shaquille O’Neal spent 19 seasons in the NBA, and for a large portion of it, he was among the best players in the league. O’Neal was probably the very best player in the league from 1999 to 2002 when he led the Lakers to a historic three-peat while also winning his only MVP award.
When you play at such a high level for so long, you invariably get to play against a lot of other great players, and O’Neal has had some legendary battles over the years against some of the greats of the game.
Shaquille O’Neal Revealed The NBA Players He Enjoyed Playing The Most
Shaq was recently on the “PBD” podcast, where he had a lot of interesting things to say as he often does, with one of them being his relationship with his former teammate Kobe Bryant. Later on during the episode, he was asked about the players he enjoyed playing against the most, and it is quite the list.
(starts at 24:01 mark):
“Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, (Hakeem) Olajuwon, Alonzo Mourning, all the greats… I’m trying to get all these guys because I want their spot, I want what they have.”
As it is said, to be the best, you have to beat the best, and O’Neal certainly did that during the course of his career. He dominated the competition at his peak in a manner that only Wilt Chamberlain perhaps did, and it speaks to how great Shaq was that many feel that he underachieved in his career.
He won 4 titles in total to go with that MVP and was a 15-time All-Star, but he could have done so much more. Del Harris, who made it to the Hall of Fame this year as a coach, stated recently that Shaq could have gone down as the GOAT if he had Kobe’s mentality. While we can’t say for sure that he would have been that good, there is no doubt that if Shaq took better care of his body and was more serious about the game, then he could have achieved a lot more.
It was that attitude of his that caused more issues with Bryant towards the end of their time together with the Lakers, and who knows how much more they could have achieved if they stuck together. It is one of the bigger what-ifs in NBA history, and Shaq previously stated that they would have won 7 titles if he stayed with the Lakers. Considering Shaq went on to win one with Miami and Kobe won 2 more with the Lakers, they might have won close to 7, but we’ll never know.
