Shaquille O’Neal would have done things differently in his career if he knew he had the chance. The National Basketball Hall of Fame inductee won titles in Los Angeles and Miami but said he would have tried to win them elsewhere if the climate were right.
Shaq appeared on ESPN’s First Take on Thursday and was asked about what LeBron James should do in free agency this summer. You may have heard that the Cleveland Cavaliers’ superstar can become a free agent this summer, and speculation has been high concerning where he should play next should he leave Cleveland.
When asked, Shaq immediately said that James should go play for the Golden State Warriors, something that was rumored he’d actually be open to doing recently. The First Take staff thought Shaq was kidding, but he then admitted that if he had the chance, he would have made a similar move in his career.
“I told my boy the other day, if you could do that, I’d have just gone to Chicago to play with Mike,” Shaq said, suggesting that he didn’t even know he could consider joining Michael Jordan and the BUlls.
This whole exchange in particular seemed to really agitate Stephen A. Smith, who accused Shaq of “lying on national television” about his advice to LeBron.
“I just like to see you go off,” Shaq said to Smith later.
But it does seems like Shaq might be serious here and, if anything, it illuminates a point that’s been brought up more than once by various basketball fans: James first deciding to join up with Dwyane Wade in Miami changed the paradigm of the league. For many, including Shaq, doing that simply wasn’t possible in the past.
Things are certainly different now, though. And while critics say it’s not fair for stars to join up on the same team, it seems at least one NBA legend wishes he had the chance to do exactly that.
