During his recent appearance on the Rich Eisen show, Shaquille O’Neal talked about the impact of winning the In-Season tournament on Lebron James’s overall legacy. Shaq claimed that the way in which the Lakers had decided to celebrate the Cup competition victory was ‘genius.’
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He initially stated that raising the celebratory banner with a different color than the other Championship banners was an attempt by the Lakers to sort of pass it as a new kind of championship banner. However, Shaq saw nothing wrong with the celebrations and ended up asking a very potent question.
“I think they should raise it. It is the first inaugural In-Season Championship,” he said, before talking about how he did not expect the celebrations to be as big as they turned out to be. Shaq then talked about how the In-Season tournament will in time be presumed to affect a player’s legacy. He also claimed that he had asked his fellow TNT analysts about the kind of impact, winning the cup would have on a player’s legacy. However, none of them had an answer.
“Let’s just say a person wins three inaugural Championships in a row, has a nice career, does that make them a Hall of Famer and a great player? They [the TNT crew] couldn’t answer…,” Shaq said.
“If the Lakers win the inaugural championship and don’t win the big Championship, does LeBron still have five rings?” he asked almost rhetorically, suggesting that the In-Season tournament will have little effect on LeBron’s overall Championship count.
Hence, while he can see that the franchise is intent on marking a celebration out of their cup competition win, Shaq himself does not seem to believe that it will contribute to any player’s overall legacy, let alone LeBron James’.
Charles Barkley had a hilarious warning for the LA Lakers after In-Season tournament victory
Just like Shaq, Barkley also recently had his say on the Lakers’ win. He also seemed intent on proving that the victory does not warrant the raising of a celebratory banner. Barkley suggested that while the Pacers deserved to celebrate had they won the competition, the Lakers’ rich history didn’t have any room for a Cup Final win.
Chuck went on to claim that he was going to troll the franchise if they ended up raising a banner on the occasion. That is, of course, exactly how it turned out, with James himself being named the MVP of the tournament.
The Lakers might have come under scrutiny, but deserve their flowers for their flawless performance throughout the competition. With James and AD as their top men, the franchise went 7-0 through the tournament and produced a magnificent win in the Finals against the Indiana Pacers.
