Shaquille O’Neal recently appeared for an interview on the ‘Stephen A. Smith Show’ where he spoke about his feelings on the 76ers’ offseason moves, which were headlined by adding LeBron James and Jaylen Brown to the roster.
He initially repeated the sentiments from his reaction to LeBron James’ announcement, where he targeted those critics who claim LeBron James is ring-chasing by joining the 76ers.
“I don’t like y’all calling my man a ring chaser… See, it’s funny to me that people that don’t have rings are saying, ‘Oh, he’s ring-chasing.’ No… He’s chasing the chance to continue to be great, to continue to add legacy to his book,” O’Neal said.
“Listen, he knows. Well, he doesn’t really know yet, but you know, and I know when this thing is over, it’s over. You can’t come back. Once you retire, once your body says, ‘I can’t go any more.’ It’s over. This guy feels he has two, three years left. Why not try to get another championship?”
“I did it, I did it with Boston after I won three in a row and then won one in Miami. Hey, towards the end of my career, let me go play with Paul and KG and, you know, be like the, you know, fourth guy and rebound and set picks and, you know, see if I can win one. And that’s what he’s doing.”
But this time he also spoke about the impact of the offseason additions to the rest of the franchise and brought up potential team chemistry concerns.
“However, I’m anxious to see how this team is going to work. The person I feel sorry for is Tyrese Maxey. And let me tell you why. He came in as a regular guy. Joel Embiid was hurt most of the year. Tyrese rose like, ‘Hey, I’m the star. This is my team.”
“Now you bring Jaylen Brown in. Is he gonna take a step back? And not only that, you bring LeBron in. Is he going to take another step back? Now Joel comes in shape, and he wants to play. He’s going to have to revert to just being a regular guy”
“And will that affect him? Because he was starting to make a name for himself. I think he made the All-Star team. He was a star.”
“And you know sometimes you know somebody or the one or two people on that team is going to have to defer. Defer to who? I don’t know whether to defer to Jaylen, defer to LeBron, defer to Embiid. I don’t know. But four big-name guys, everybody can’t get off every night,” O’Neal added.
Stephen A. Smith pointed to the pressure that Tyrese Maxey brought upon himself and how he has shown a pattern of being able to make it work when put in tough situations.
“I hope it will,” O’Neal said. “But I love where he came from to where he is now. All through hard work, the guy played. He made a name for himself. He made the All-Star team. He garnered other guys’ respect.”
“Now with all these guys coming in, are you gonna take a step back or are you gonna continue, you know, to do what you do? That’s the question.”
“Listen, he’s a great player. He’s an unselfish player, but you know, when you go from A and then you’re finally at Z, why do you have to go back to T or W or U or or J? So, you know, it’s going to be interesting because if you look at this team on paper, if you look at this team on paper, it’s a fabulous team. Maxey, Edgecombe, LeBron, Brown, and Embiid.”Â
While O’Neal also sounded in support of LeBron James’ move to the 76ers, he questioned the team’s fit together while admitting his hunch that Tyrese Maxey may fall the most in their ranks.
O’Neal essentially questioned the team chemistry and the rotational order in which they will have to decide who plays as the primary scoring option on the floor, among other potential concerns.
The current expectation is that LeBron James will already take over from Tyrese Maxey as the primary playmaker while Jaylen Brown will become the primary scoring option. It will certainly be interesting to see how the 76ers figure out this problem of too much star power and just one ball.
