Basketball

“LeBron James and the Lakers Are Like Gated Community Gangsters!”: Shaquille O’Neal Drops Scathing Diss as Lakers Start Season 0-2

Tonoy Sengupta
|PublishedOct 23, 2022

"I Ain't On That List, But Neither is LeBron James": Shaquille O'Neal Once Said He and the 4x MVP Don't Deserve to Be in Lakers Mount Rushmore

Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James.

Credits: USA Today

Shaquille O’Neal hilariously roasts the Lakers for their biggest flaw this season

LeBron James and the LA Lakers haven’t quite gotten down to the start they wanted, have they?

So far, the franchise has played 2 games… and lost both of them.

Now, while the two teams they did play are among the very best of the NBA, there have been some worrying signs about the team. And it appears that Shaquille O’Neal was able to put out a perfect metaphor to describe the situation.

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Shaquille O’Neal hilariously calls out LeBron James and the Lakers’ utter lack of shooting

During his NBA career, Shaquille O’Neal was hardly the type of player to light it up from the outside. In fact, over the course of his long career in the NBA, he only made a single three-pointer.

However, when it comes to today’s NBA, he has no problem ripping a team’s shooting to shreds. And after looking at the utter shambles of the Purple and Gold’s situation, here is the brilliant analogy he used to define the situation.

Frankly, can the Lakers even argue with this one?

LeBron James is a mediocre three-point shooter at best, Anthony Davis is far too streaky to be relied upon, and the rest of the team is somehow far worse.

Given the 1 in, 4 out system LeBron James and his team are playing, they need their shooters to knock down the open shots they consistently get.

At the end of the day, if they don’t, the Lakers are doomed to fail this season.

Can LeBron James and the Lakers even make the play-in tournament this season?

Honestly, at first glance, this situation looks far more awful than it is.

The franchise’s defense has most certainly been improving, while their stars seem to be more comfortable while playing together. So., all in all, there is still enough there for the team to put something together this season.

Still, is the ply-in tournament a lock?

No way.

A lot of things can change over the course of the season, and it’s likely the Lakers will need it all if they are to make a run for the postseason.

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About the author

Tonoy Sengupta

Tonoy Sengupta is a Senior Editor at The SportsRush. Coming from an athletically inclined family, he has been surrounded by sports ever since he was 4 years old. But, while initially pouring all his time into Football (soccer), at 14, Tonoy discovered basketball through the countless highlights of Stephen Curry humiliating players from Curry Land. And just like that, a fiery passion for the game was ignited within Tonoy. And soon after, he decided to become a student of journalism, graduating in 2022, and choosing sports as his area of interest. Today, you can find him spending 99% of his time browsing through every type of content on every team in the NBA, before uncorking everything he has found to the world. In the 1% he isn't doing this, you can find him playing Basketball, Football, Volleyball, or practically any other sport he has had the opportunity to learn.