Former Tennessee and current WNBA great Candace Parker had fellow NBA on TNT host and NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal in tears on Tuesday with his exclusion from her all-time starting five lineup. Well, fake tears, at least.
As the duo went back and forth in good nature over Shaq not getting the nod at center — perhaps a rebuttal to Parker being left out of O’Neal’s shoutout to some GOATs (greatest of all time) recently — O’Neal waited for his opportunity to ham it up. And fellow host Jamal Crawford was all too happy to fuel the fire.
“Candace is turning red, Candace is turning orange,” Crawford said as the discussion rolled along.
Parker arrived at the following starting five, and gave the impression that it was created off the cuff: Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Steph Curry, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett.
When the list was first shown in studio, O’Neal jokingly used a piece of paper to block out his view of Parker at the desk.
And it’s the Garnett addition that became the hot-button issue.
Not that the power forward isn’t one of the NBA’s greats, a league champion and fearsome presence for years down low, but O’Neal can probably stake a claim to being the most dominant player in the history of the league at the very peak of his abilities. Along with being in the Hall of Fame, O’Neal is a four-time NBA champion, Rookie of the Year, 15-time All Star, twice a scoring champion, a three-time all-defensive team selection, three-time finals MVPs and took home NBA MVP for the 1999-2000 season.
And he pointed out the positional gap, which Parker said is for plans to play a running, open style in this hypothetical universe.
“Who on that list can guard Shaq?” Crawford said, pushing Parker.
“But we’re going to be running,” Parker said.
Crawford had his rebuttal before O’Neal chimed in.
“So Shaq can’t run?” O’Neal said
Parker was quick to keep up the banter.
“I didn’t say Shaq couldn’t run. Orlando Shaq, that’d be kinda nice,” she said.
Host Adam Lefkoe tried to move on to previewing the slate of games that night before O’Neal interrupted with his fake tears. And through the fake tears, O’Neal let out some more banter about being absent from Parker’s all-time NBA starting lineup.
“Why!?” O’Neal said through fake sobs, delivering a final few lines before perking back up. “Mommy, Candace didn’t pick me!”
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