Shaquille O’Neal enjoyed tremendous success during his NBA career as he won 4 NBA titles to go with a 3 Finals MVPs and one regular-season MVP. O’Neal was the most dominant physical force the league had seen since Wilt Chamberlain and he has gone down in history as one of the all-time greats.
There was, of course, a time when he hadn’t accomplished any of it and Shaq on “The Big Podcast” recounted the time early on during his time with the Los Angeles Lakers when Adam Sandler used to bring up the fact that he hadn’t won a title.
“I used to run after a special play and be like Adam give me a movie, and he’d be like, win a championship Shaq. So I won 3 then I got traded and next thing I know Adam called me and said, Shaq I made you a promise you won 3 championships I got 3 movies for you.”
That’s come classic trash talk right there and you’d expect something like that from Sandler. While we remember Shaq’s time with the Lakers for his dominance, it is easy to forget that he was catching some flak in his early years with the team. He had been swept out of the playoffs twice in his first three seasons with the Lakers before they finally broke through in 1999-00 under Phil Jackson. They would go on to three-peat and no one has managed to do it since, not even the Golden State Warriors.
Sandler spoke some more basketball during the podcast and he even revealed his Mount Rushmore which didn’t have LeBron James or Michael Jordan on it. It did have Shaq on it though and there can be an argument for Shaq to be on an NBA Mount Rushmore after the dominance he put on display during his peak with the Lakers.
