For the umpteenth time in recent history, NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal has taken a dig at Los Angeles Lakers centre Dwight Howard.
“He’s too nice,” O’Neal said Tuesday on ESPNLA 710. “I’m a connoisseur of giggling and playing and all that and making you laugh and playing with the fans, but when I cross that line, I’m ready to tear your face off. I don’t care who it is. You could put one of my aunts or uncles out there, and I’m going to give him these elbows in their chest and I’m going to throw it down in their face. That’s what you have to do. … He’s just too nice. If I was him, I would get into the same mood I was in.”
O’Neal, who won three titles while playing centre for the Lakers from 1996–2004, believes that it is his obligation to push Howard to become a better player.
“I think it’s my duty to help this young man become one of the best big men in the league,” O’Neal said. “I’m from the old school. I’m not doing it nicely. I’m pushing buttons, I’m talking about you and I’m doing it like this. … I think it’s my job as a former big man to get him to play up to par.”
While O’Neal says it’s his duty to help Howard, he has actually been pestering him for years and the constant animosity seems to stem from Howard’s decision to wear a Superman costume during the NBA Slam Dunk Contest in 2008, a moniker that O’Neal used to have solo possession of.
The Superman issue seems to really bother Shaq as he mentioned it in his autobiography and even handed out t-shirts at his retirement ceremony in June 2011 which read “The Real Superman.”
Now an analyst on TNT, O’Neal even went so far as to say that New Orleans Hornets centre Robin Lopez and Philadelphia 76ers centre Andrew Bynum were better than Howard on a telecast last fall.
Howard responded by saying that O’Neal’s comments seem to be a tad hypocritical.
“He hated the fact when he played that the older guys were talking about him and how he played and now he’s doing the exact same thing,” Howard told ESPN.com. “Just let it go. There’s no sense for him to be talking trash to me. He did his thing in the league. He’s one of the most dominant players to ever play the game. Just sit back and relax. You did your thing. Your time is up. So, I don’t really care. I don’t really care. He can say whatever he wants to say.”
