The NBA is one of the biggest communities in sports, but that doesn’t mean every player likes each other. Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard never saw eye-to-eye during their playing careers. Their beef spanned nearly two decades, and it all began with the unintentional involvement of rapper Soulja Boy.
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The former Orlando Magic big men were two of the most polarizing centers during their playing years. O’Neal proceeded to solidify himself as arguably the most dominant player of all time. Howard may not have had the same offensive impact, but his defensive prowess made up for what he lacked scoring-wise.
Howard never led the league in scoring like O’Neal, but he won the Defensive Player of the Year award three times. Despite their on-court competition, that isn’t where their feud began. It was sparked by a nickname.
Shaq is a man of many titles, one of those being Superman. Howard eventually became the face of the name, though, and that rubbed O’Neal the wrong way, even if Howard never intended to steal O’Neal’s identity.
Fans started to call Howard the moniker when he wore a Superman outfit while throwing down an emphatic slam to capture the 2008 NBA Slam Dunk Contest crown. Although the public saw that as a spectacle deserving of the name, for Howard, the nickname originated from a Soulja Boy hit.
“Soulja Boy had the ‘Superman’ song, and that was my favorite song cause everyone knows I’m known for dancing,” Howard said on The Breakfast Club. “So I’m doing it every day in practice. I dunked over my teammate one day, and everybody was like, ‘Man, you’re really Superman. We’re going to call you Superman.'”
Howard never wanted to get on O’Neal’s bad side, but, unfortunately, he did. Thankfully, the two were able to finally put their differences aside during Howard’s April 24, 2025, appearance on The Big Podcast with Shaq.
The dynamic changed once Howard asked O’Neal to walk him out during his induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. The gesture has brought their relationship full-circle, and the two will share the same stage on September 6, when Howard’s name becomes immortalized in the basketball world.
