Who’s the GOAT? For NBA fans, deciding the greatest player of all time is an ongoing debate, with contenders typically narrowed down to Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, or LeBron James. Consequently, choosing one among the three is undoubtedly a tough nut to crack. However, this wasn’t the case for Shaquille O’Neal, who shared the basketball court with each of them.
Interestingly, since Shaq isn’t just an NBA champion but also a sports commentator and host of the Inside the NBA show, this provides him with a deeper understanding of what people want to hear from him.
“I’ve heard players say, including myself, ‘I feared Mike.’ I’ve heard players in your generation say, ‘I feared Kobe.’ I never really heard any players say they fear LeBron,” shared Shaquille O’Neal. Though this isn’t something Shaquille O’Neal aimed for.
Once again, Shaquille O’Neal sat down with the team of JJ Reddick and shared his valuable insights about his thoughts on the GOAT. Soon after recording, a snippet of the video was uploaded to JJ Reddick’s official YouTube channel with the title, “Shaq on His Place in the GOAT Debate and His Mutual Respect With Kobe.“
As expected, within hours of posting, JJ Reddick’s post made waves online as Shaq unveiled a secret. “I get jealous that my name is not in that greatest of all time, but I come from an era where it’s dominantly, for sure, don’t mention my name, and of course, we have a lot of different categories,” he replied when asked about the GOAT. Interestingly, he revealed that he is jealous of Kobe and Michael for not being strong contenders. Sounds fascinating, right?
Shaquille O Neal’s lingering frustration
During his NBA days, Shaquille O’Neal’s basketball career was marked by dominance. Notably, he averaged 24 points and 11 rebounds per game with 58% shooting accuracy in 1207 regular-season games. And, this is something that stretched his PER as the fifth-best in NBA history. But, these are just facts as Shaquille O’Neal has something else to say here.
He said, “You know I missed 250 games so that’s another 5,000 points that I know I definitely would have so that’ll put me at 33 that would make me what number two three but now I’m Nine KD just passed me.” He added, “I’m probably going to be in the top 10 in the next four or five years, which is really going to piss me off so oh I’m going to be so mad when that happens I’m going to tear this F*****g house.” However, as evident, Shaquille O’Neal never made it there, and this resulted in him being jealous.