Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard have been at odds for years, but something changed after Howard was recently elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. In a segment on his podcast, the legendary big man buried the hatchet with Howard once and for all as he agreed to walk him out during his upcoming Hall of Fame ceremony.
“That’s awesome. I’ll do it,” said O’Neal on the BIG Podcast. “I’ll be there. That’s my guy.”
Over the years, Shaq has been very critical of Howard, but it didn’t stop Dwight from inviting the Lakers legend to participate in his big night. The two finally met up in person to settle their feud, and Shaq explained why he’s been so hard on the 3x Defensive Player of the Year.
“Me and Dwight finally met up the other day, and he asked me, ‘How come you don’t like me?’ And my response was, ‘What makes you think I don’t like you?’ He said, ‘Cause you’re always hard on me.’ You don’t think I was hard on Kobe? You don’t think I was hard on D-Wade? You don’t think I’m hard on Jeremy and Shane? This is what I do to get my guys to go to that next level,” said Shaq. “As a leader, sometimes you have to push your guys. Sometimes they like it, sometimes they don’t. But I know what it takes and I know what I needed, I needed another absolute dog with me.”
Shaquille O’Neal believes in a tough love approach, and it’s been his preferred leadership style since he first arrived in Los Angeles in 1996. While Shaq is notorious for being a jokester and prankster, he wasn’t afraid to push his teammates’ buttons when he felt they needed a spark.
It’s always been a controversial approach, but Shaq found a lot of success with it as a 4x champion, former MVP, and 15x All-Star. He was constantly pushing guys like Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, and Penny Hardaway to be the best version of themselves on the court.
Now that he’s retired, Shaq uses the same tactics to try and push today’s active big men to their absolute peak. Dwight Howard is retired from NBA action right now, but he was a common target for O’Neal’s comments, and it gave him the impression that they were on bad terms.
In truth, O’Neal was just trying to light a fire under Dwight. From 2004 to 2012, he was one of the best centers in the game with averages of 18.4 points, 13.0 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game on 57.7% shooting. He won three straight Defensive Player of the Year awards (2009-2011) before joining the Lakers for the 2012-13 season.
Howard only made the All-Star team twice after leaving the Magic, and his career was on a major decline by the time he left the Rockets in 2016. Shaq was tough on Dwight during this stretch and flamed him for daring to don the ‘Superman’ nickname without winning a championship.
Howard was never able to regain his All-Star status, but he found a new role in the league that helped give him a satisfying ending. In 2020, he returned to the Lakers and helped them win a championship as the sixth man off the bench.
Now that he’s on the cusp of joining the Hall of Fame, Dwight’s legacy can no longer be denied, and it seems that even Shaq is ready to acknowledge his place as one of the greatest centers in modern NBA history.
