Shaquille O’Neal And Tracy McGrady Have Back and Forth on Hypothetical 5v5 Involving Themselves

NBA fans love to pit their superstar-filled fantasy lineups against one another. Thanks to social media, now they can view their favorite athletes engaging in these hypotheticals. And Shaquille O’Neal is always up for such battles, especially when he is part of the lineup. Recently, Tracy McGrady took to his IG and discussed countering a lineup consisting of Stephen Curry, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Shaq in a seven-game series.

While terming this squad as “strong”, he looked at the individual match-ups to roll out a competing five. He started with Joel Embiid to go against Shaq, and then Kyrie Irving to take care of the Stephen Curry match-up. T-Mac didn’t have to think twice before pitting Michael Jordan against his prototype Kobe Bryant.

Meanwhile, he selected himself and Kevin Durant to fill out his well-rounded side. Considering that Michael Jordan never went to a Game 7 during his six titles, he claimed that his picks would take care of the business in six games.

 

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A post shared by T-Mac (@tmac213)

As expected, the Lakers legend vehemently disagreed with a lineup containing himself losing in a seven-game series. He commented, “Four games to two love u tmac”. However, McGrady re-iterated that the 4-2 series result would be in his squad’s favor, “That’s how I see it favoring us”.

Shaq and Tmac disagree on their hypothetical 5v5 pic.twitter.com/uzrLDWTMqz

— tragicpatek (@tragicpatek) May 19, 2024

While we will never know about the outcome of this game, these types of scenarios provide widespread speculations and ignite the imagination levels of fans and athletes alike. Shaq surely loves having similar talks on social media whenever he gets an opportunity.

Shaquille O’Neal has delved into such conversations before

In August 2023, O’Neal took to his IG and discussed two loaded fantasy lineups which were dubbed Team Yellow and Team Red based on the jersey colors of the superstars. Team Yellow consisted of Stephen Curry, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Karl Malone, and Shaquille O’Neal. Meanwhile, Team Red included Derrick Rose, Michael Jordan, Julius Erving, Charles Barkley, and Hakeem Olajuwon.

Shaq, who is usually confident about his pick to win, was confused about it this time. He wrote, “This is good one, i honestly don’t know. what y’all think. this actually might go 7.”

 

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A post shared by DR. SHAQUILLE O’NEAL Ed.D. (@shaq)

The Big Aristotle is a fan of such hypotheticals and thanks to social media, we can hear his opinions on these fantasy lineups regularly. At any rate, it would have been fantastic if there was a way to find out how they would have fared against each other.