Did Shaquille O’Neal Ever Play With LeBron James? Deep Dive Into The History Between ‘The King’ And ‘The Big Aristotle’

Shaquille O’Neal has played with some of the greatest athletes in the history of the NBA en route to having one of the most successful careers in North American sporting history. His greatest teammate was undoubtedly Kobe Bryant who he spent 8 seasons with on the Los Angeles Lakers, winning 3 championships in the process. 

Penny Hardaway was the first true All-NBA talent that he played with, spending 3 seasons with him on the Orlando Magic as they would even make it to an NBA Finals together in 1995. Unfortunately, their inability to get past Michael Jordan in ‘96 coupled with the Magic lowballing him that same summer led to Shaq wanting out. 

Dwyane Wade and Shaq made quite the mighty duo in the mid 2000s as well as the latter finally submitted to Wade and considered himself a secondary star to him. Him swallowing his pride and handing the keys to D-Wade led to his 4th and final championship. 

After his stint with the Miami Heat, Shaq played on 3 other NBA teams before finally retiring in 2011 due to an Achilles injury.

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Did Shaquille O’Neal ever play with LeBron James? 

LeBron James played with Shaquille O’Neal for 53 regular season games in the 2009-10 season. He was traded from the Phoenix Suns to Cleveland in the offseason after it was clear that Shaq on the Suns was an experiment that simply wasn’t going to work. 

Shaq averaged 12 points and 6.7 rebounds a game in just over 23 minutes a night for the Cavaliers in his one year stint with them. The Cavaliers would then make the Playoffs, with him starting in all 11 games, eventually losing to the Boston Celtics in 6 games in the Eastern Conference SemiFinals. 

Following the end of the 2010 campaign, Shaq left the Cavs for the Celtics while LeBron James found himself on the Miami Heat. Dan Gilbert’s attempt at surrounding his 2x MVP with talent failed as the biggest name to play with James during his 7 years in Cleveland in his first stint was unfortunately Shaq in his 18th season in the league.

2007 Shaq, LeBron, Dwight Howard All-Star Dance-Off pic.twitter.com/pmHQrFRN5H

— John Ledesma (@JohnnyNBA) February 19, 2023

LeBron James’ relationship with Shaquille O’Neal 

LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal parted ways on good terms with one another. Their decisions to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers was not based off of their feelings for each other, rather the situation wasn’t right for them individually. 

James wasn’t getting the championship equity he needed from Cleveland and Shaq wasn’t getting the multi-year contract he wanted at that stage of his career. Though, it was quite evident that the two were friends as Shaq even bought James a $450,000 Rolls Royce for his 25th birthday. 

After Shaq’s retirement, it’s unclear if LeBron and O’Neal kept up with one another off the court but the Akron native was very vocal about his admiration for Shaq and the ‘Inside the NBA’ guys. He said that he respects their opinions because they have an idea about what it’s like to be in an athlete’s shoes so their opinions carry more weight. 

It’s quite a shame that fans saw a young LeBron James who needed to dominate in the paint far more at the time team up with an older Shaq. The two greatest versions of O’Neal and James that could’ve possibly teamed up would be 2018 James and any Shaq from 1992-2000, for obvious reasons.

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