“Imagine If Shaquille O’Neal And I Teamed Up”: Scottie Pippen Poses Hypothetical Despite Winning 6 Titles With Michael Jordan

The NBA has been a star-driven league for almost all of its existence. The marketability of the biggest stars and the popularity of the league has almost always been directly proportional to each other.

The star-driven culture also poses various debates and “What ifs”. Such hypothetical discussions have been a part of basketball culture and fandom ever since era-transcending players warranted comparisons to the greats of the past.

So, what if one of the most dominant centers of all time teamed up with arguably the greatest perimeter defender of all time? That is exactly the question posed by Scottie Pippen who pondered a pairing with Shaquille O’Neal while sharing an image of the duo scrimmaging for USA Basketball.

While Pippen did win 6 championships with Michael Jordan and practically do all that could be done in the NBA, a pairing with O’Neal certainly did intrigue him, it would appear.

Also read: “Scottie Pippen Revolutionized the Point Forward Position”: Dennis Rodman Once Heaped Praise on Bulls Teammate’s Offensive Ability

Scottie Pippen took to Instagram to ask the fans what they felt could have been from a pairing with Shaquille O’Neal.

Pippen and O’Neal joined forces only during infrequent occasions when they turned up for Team USA Basketball. Beyond the same, their paths never really crossed during their time in the league.

But the prospect of the two teaming up is certainly something basketball fans can imagine in great detail. The prospect of Shaquille O’Neal wreaking havoc in the paint while having the support of Scottie Pippen in a possible triangle offense is genuinely fear-inspiring.

 

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A post shared by Scottie Pippen (@scottiepippen)

O’Neal and Pippen playing together, however, did become a reality. Not with Scottie and Shaquille, though. Scottie Jr. and Shareef did play together as part of the Lakers Summer League outfit. This pairing, however, didn’t serve to be any reminder of what could have been with a Scottie and Shaq pairing.

Pippen’s post is also confusing in certain ways. After all, the two Hall of Famers had previously beefed over certain claims made by each other. To see a reversal from beefing to hyping a possible teaming up is definitely interesting to see.

Pippen and Shaq beefed in 2015 and O’Neal even credited Ron Harper and Steve Kerr for the Bulls’ success over Scottie.

Superman may not have been a salty superhero, but the NBA’s version of Superman certainly seems to have been one. Shaq has a history of online beef and calling out people, even taking it personally quite often.

The beef with Pippen was exactly that. There was a difference in opinion, there was a clap back from Scottie, and there were salty demeaning statements from Shaq that followed suit.

The Big Diesel wasn’t amused by Pippen’s claim that an all-time Bulls team would beat an all-time Lakers team. This prompted Shaq to state that Pippen wasn’t good enough and even equated role players Ron Harper and Steve Kerr to Scottie.

Pippen clearly believes Shaq is an all-time great, as evident in his Instagram post. But with Shaq deeming Pippen to not be good enough, would the “What if” ever have panned out?

Also read: “Scottie Pippen Wasn’t Good Enough”: Shaquille O’Neal Once Went At Michael Jordan’s ‘Robin’ Amidst Their Online Beef