Shaquille O'Neal drops truth on Dwight Howard criticisms

06/05/2024 15:31

Shaquille O’Neal is a Hall of Fame NBA center whose career was defined by dominance. He won three scoring titles, four NBA championships, and was named to one of the league’s three All-NBA teams a staggering fourteen times during his career. He is one of just three players in league history who is ranked in the top fifteen in career points, rebounds, and blocks. Everything that Shaq did was prolific… he even boasts more nicknames than any other player in NBA history.

But strangely, Shaq’s post-playing career, which he has been employed by Turner Sports for the duration of, has been marked by a bizarre “feud” with Dwight Howard. This contentious relationship began while Shaquille O’Neal was still in the league, when Dwight Howard began using the Superman moniker that Shaq once popularized — again, Shaq had no shortage of self-appointed nicknames throughout his career, so it’s strange that he was so perturbed when Dwight started using a nickname that Shaq himself had lifted from Clark Kent. But since Shaq retired following the 2010-11 season, he’s gone on record lord knows how many times to discuss how he feels about Superman 3.0.

Recently, while appearing on the Old Man and The Three Podcast, Shaquille O’Neal once again addressed his feelings toward Dwight Howard, this time seemingly suggesting that the critical comments he’s made about Howard in the past were rooted in his desire to see his Superman successor succeed at the level Shaq himself once did.

"I have to like you to be able to say something about you. And I actually like Dwight… And sometimes I will add fuel to the fire to see what type of people they are."

Shaq on why he criticizes Dwight Howard

(via @OldManAndThree / YT)pic.twitter.com/1lvJ85DWdB

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) May 6, 2024

In fairness to Shaq, what he said in regards “playing around most of the time” feels pretty spot on. Even during his playing career, one of the knocks on Shaquille O’Neal was that he wasn’t serious enough. Wasn’t serious enough about staying in top shape. Wasn’t serious enough about improving his free throw shooting. Wasn’t serious enough about his approach to the game. And based on many of the things he said during his NBA career, it’s fair to say that he wasn’t always all that serious when he was talking to the media.

Now that Shaquille O’Neal is part of the NBA media, maybe we do need to give him the benefit of the doubt on this topic. Yes, Shaq has been more critical toward Dwight Howard over the years than most players, but Dwight Howard was touted as the next great NBA center as Shaquille O’Neal was on his way out of the NBA. The best players in the league, for better or worse, are and always have been given more blame AND more credit than the rest of their peers. The same has been the case for Dwight Howard.

When the Orlando Magic made their Finals run in 2009, we catapulted Dwight Howard into a different stratosphere of NBA star because he had gotten over the hump. Sure, we can point to the contributions of Hedo Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis, and the four-out system that head coach Stan Van Gundy employed. But first and foremost, and rightfully so, Dwight Howard is credited for the Orlando Magic making the NBA Finals for only the second time in franchise history.

As the self-appointed “president of the big man alliance,” it makes sense that Shaq would theoretically feel as though it’s his job to light a fire under the next generation of big men so they could eventually, as Shaq put it, “overthrow him.” Dwight was the first one who looked the part of having the chance to ascend to Shaq’s level, and understandably, Shaq may have been a little insecure about his own place in league history as his playing career was winding down. Now, as the NBA is evolving, big men like Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid and Victor Wembanyama will be the next guys who have the chance to do so, and I wouldn’t expect Shaq to take cheap shots at any of them just to boost his own legacy.

Let’s give Shaq some credit. Maybe he’s evolving too.

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