The original Superman, Shaquille O’Neal, has never been secretive about beefing with Dwight Howard. He has called him a fraud, and has also said Andrew Bynum is better. In a report from USA Today, Shaq takes shots at Dwight Howard…again.
Among other things, Shaq took jabs at Howard basically hinting that he doesn’t think D12 can hang in the tradition of great Lakers big men, including Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and himself:
“I have three sons, and I always tell them that if you want to call yourself big then you have big shoes to fill. Anybody who calls himself big has big shoes to fill. Right now, he’s off pace. He has to get himself on pace if he wants to call himself big.”
Shaq also said that Howard will face much harsher criticism in the City of Angels if he thought he had it tough in Orlando, as well as Lakers fans having extremely high expectations pairing Howard with Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash:
“The first thing the great Jerry West did when I signed with the Lakers is he walked me into the Forum and told me to look up. He showed me all the great big men that played before me and how many championships they won. The Lakers have a tradition of having great big men. He has a lot of work ahead of him. If he thinks the Orlando Sentinel was on his case when he didn’t perform, guys like Bill Plaschke, they don’t play…the first year they (the fans) are going to love him, but the second and third year, if they don’t win, he will be back to square one.”
Whether or not Dwight Howard will take these comments to heart and use them as motivation, or will just go about his business and play his game, is up for speculation. Either way, it’s hard not to imagine the Lakers jumping right into the mix of NBA Finals talks with the team they’ve put together.
Original Story:
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August 11, 2012
