Shaquille O’Neal and Stephen Curry are two of the most iconic players we have seen in the NBA. Both of them have changed the way the game of basketball is played, with their own unique mark stamped on the game. While Shaquille O’Neal did so with his strength and brutality, Steph made his way with his agility and shooting. Steph’s historic 2016 season landed him the NBA’s first unanimous MVP honors. However, the Chef himself recently claimed that Shaq deserved it first, something which Big Diesel set out to prove yet again.
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During a quickfire interview with Complex Sports, Stephen Curry was asked to pick between his 3-point record and the unanimous MVP. Steph picked the latter and then said,
“I fully understand that I probably shouldn’t have been the first one. I think the year Shaq won, he was a clear unanimous pick.”
Either Shaq might have heard the same interview, or he might have been reminded of the unanimous MVP because he took to Instagram to share a post explaining why he deserved the same.
Shaquille O’Neal compares 2016 Stephen Curry stats to his own from 2000
One thing from Shaq’s career that agitates him a lot is the fact that he just won one MVP. There were several seasons where he was clearly the best player in the league. However, those did not translate into an MVP award. The one MVP that he did win, he missed becoming the league’s first unanimous MVP by just one vote.
Still upset about the same, Shaq put up a graphic comparing his MVP season stats to that of unanimous MVP Steph with the caption,
“me versus my favorite player @stephencurry30 “
View this post on Instagram
On the left, we can see how Steph had the PPG advantage with 30.1 , higher assists with 6.7, and a higher steals number – 2.1. On the other hand, Shaq had an impressive 29.7PPG, 13.6 rebounds, and 3 blocks per game. At the same time, he also led the Lakers to a championship that year.
Did Shaq deserve the unanimous MVP back in 2000?
Reporter who picked Allen Iverson over Shaq received Death Threats
While Shaq himself has joked on several occasions about the ‘idiot reporter’ robbing him, he clearly did not mean any physical harm to the same. However, the same could not be said of his fans. According to the CNN reporter, he received death threats over his MVP pick for a long time.
‘It was crazy. I got death threats. I certainly didn’t mean to be the lone one. All I did was picked the guy who was the most valuable to his team. Philadelphia without Iverson was a CBA team, and if the Lakers didn’t have Shaq, they would have still been a pretty good team.’
While it was a huge honor, I’m sure Shaq would not want his fans going after someone’s life for a unanimous MVP win.
