Dominating the league for nearly two decades, Shaquille O’Neal managed to collect several accolades. Taking immense pride in his achievements, Diesel has won an MVP, 4 championships, and 3 Finals MVPs, among a long list of other accomplishments. A huge fan of his own work, the Big Aristotle has often praised himself and predicted himself to emerge victoriously in several hypothetical outings. This time, the former Los Angeles Lakers legend did so by posting a FanDuel graphic of the 2002-2003 All-NBA 1st Team matching up against the 2022-2023 All-NBA 1st Team.
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Despite the two teams possessing some of the best the NBA has produced, the 51-year-old analyst wasn’t humble in predicting that his side would end up defeating the recent-most All-NBA 1st Team 4-0 in a 7-game series. According to Shaq, he and his best friend Kobe would have bullied these young kids.
Shaquille O’Neal believes that the current All-NBA 1st Team would be swept by the 2002-03 All-NBA 1st Team
A huge fan of social media, O’Neal posted the graphic on Instagram. The NBA Hall-Of-Famer even predicted an easy sweep by mentioning it in the caption.
“stop it @fanduel this is a four game sweep yup i said it and i mean it. let me know your thoughts and don’t hold back. say whatever”
This year’s All-NBA 1st Team featured some of the brightest talents in the league. Apart from MVPs Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo, youngsters such as Jayson Tatum, Shai-Gilgeous Alexander, and Luka Doncic also got the nod.
On the other hand, the team from two decades ago is equally as deadly. With Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and Shaq, this side does possess some generational scorers, physical anomalies, and two-way stars.
Yes, the team from 20 years ago has a massive size advantage. Being a better team, defense-wise, the 2002-2003 team would certainly end up on the winning side of this hypothetical battle. But it surely wouldn’t be a cakewalk for them.
There were several users who voiced their opinion on Shaq’s post. While @bigprimetime, @jermaineoneal, and @edwardsmobiledetailing_atl believed it would be a sweep, users such as @don.smith11 had faith in the JoJo and co.
@___.cide detailed how there would be a defensive mismatch, especially with SGA being unable to guard either Kobe or T-Mac. The user further wrote:
Its mismatches all over the place😂😂 shai cant guard tracy and luka for sure cant guard kobe plus the big fundamental and I haven’t even said who guarding shaq cause he would give embiid hell
If only we could witness these players, in the prime of their careers, go at it against each other.
Shaq always picks his side in such hypothetical battles
Shaq has always picked his side to win any matchup. There have been numerous other instances where he posted hypothetical matchups on his social media.
Clearly, the 7-foot-1 big man is a firm believer in himself and understandably so given the magnitude of his superstardom. Him being as active as he is on social media allows fans of this generation, who’ve never seen him play live to grasp greatness from the past and compare to greatness as it unfolds in front of their eyes from current day stars.
‘The Big Aristotle’ has every right to be confident in his abilities against players of this generation as he achieved everything a man who sets foot in the NBA wants to achieve. So, constantly seeing him pick himself in these hypotheticals makes sense.
