During the prime of his career, Shaquille O’Neal was simply unstoppable. The Big Aristotle had the talent to destroy any opposing defense on any given night with ease. Although Shaq already became a household name during his stint with the Orlando Magic, he truly reached his peak while playing for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Before joining the Lakers, he had failed to win an NBA Championship. This led to him becoming an easy target for people who wanted to criticize him. But that all changed when he joined forces with Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles.
Shaq and Kobe formed an iconic duo that was simply too much for opponents. While the two superstars were great during their respective primes, during the Lakers’ three-peat era, it was O’Neal who was better out of the two.
The Diesel’s numbers simply looked insane during that time, and even today, fans appreciate Shaq’s dominance at that time. Popular Twitter account “Legion Hoops” recently tweeted about Shaq’s numbers in the 2000, 2001, and 2002 NBA Finals.
SHAQ in the NBA Finals:
2000 – 38 PPG, 16.7 RPG, 2.7 BPG & 2.3 APG.
2001 – 33 PPG, 15.8 RPG, 4.8 APG & 3.4 BPG.
2002 – 36.3 PPG, 12.3 RPG, 3.8 APG & 2.8 BPG.
🤯🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/0kh7FYVrPx
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) June 12, 2022
Most fans’ minds were blown by looking at these stats that Shaq pulled off with ease. But there was one particular fan who decided to take a shot at him. He pointed out that despite such numbers, O’Neal couldn’t win a ring without Kobe by his side. This led to Shaq shutting up the fan with nothing but facts.
“No person can win without another star big dummy how many would magic have without kareem how many would kenny smith have without hakeem wtf u talking about i hate dumb a** people enjoy my stats and stf up.”
no person can win without another star big dummy how many would magic have without kareem how many would kenny smith have without hakeem wtf u talking about i hate dumb ass people enjoy my stats and stf up
— SHAQ (@SHAQ) June 13, 2022
Shaq made it clear in his tweet that even the best of the players can’t win multiple titles without another big star player on the team. He used the examples of Magic Johnson, Kareem-Abdul Jabbar, etc. to make his point.
We definitely agree with Shaq about this. There might be a very rare instance when a lone superstar won a ring for his team all by himself. After all, the NBA is arguably the most competitive basketball league out there. So there is no harm in teaming up with another superstar to win a ring.
