Dwight Howard captured his first NBA championship when the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Miami Heat in the Finals two weeks ago, and the eight-time All-Star was overcome with emotion while celebrating the feat. Shaquille O’Neal doesn’t think it was much of a feat, however.
In the latest edition of “The Big Podcast with Shaq,” O’Neal was critical of Lakers role players for the flamboyant manner in which they celebrated winning an NBA title. While he did not mention any players by name, he was clearly talking about Howard at one point. Shaq made a reference to players posting too much on social media and one player who told people to never give up on their dreams:
“There’s a lot of players bragging on their little Instagram like they were the reason they got the championship. I ain’t gonna say no names. Sit your a– down. You didn’t do nothing. Stop it, front-runner, bandwagon-jumper — stop it. … Post one pic and sit your a– down. You ain’t do nada.”
You can hear the audio of Shaq’s comments and see Howard’s Instagram live video here.
While it was fairly obvious that Shaq was taunting Howard, he did say there were “a lot of players” bragging. He might have also been talking about JaVale McGee, as the two have had beef in the past.
Howard played just 11.8 minutes per game and averaged 2.8 points and 2.8 rebounds in the NBA Finals. He played only one minute in L.A.’s Game 6 win, which clinched the series. He had a slightly bigger role in the Western Conference Finals, but you could argue his only job was to try to aggravate Nikola Jokic.
McGee did not play at all in the Finals.
Shaq won four championships during his Hall of Fame career, and he was NBA Finals MVP three times. This isn’t the first time he’s tried to take credit away from a fellow player who won a ring.
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