25 days after being traded, Luka Doncic is facing his former team, the Dallas Mavericks, at Crypto.com Arena tonight. Before tip-off, the Slovenian guard was seen interacting with his former teammates, much to the chagrin of Shaquille O’Neal.
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The four-time NBA champion believes that Doncic needs to channel his competitiveness into the matchup between the Lakers and Mavericks instead of portraying a friendly demeanor.
As a fierce competitor himself, O’Neal had some words of advice for Luka. “I would have tried to at least go for 50,” the two-time scoring champion remarked. “But the fact that Luka is still laughing and clowning around with teammates, he’s not [as] mad as we think he is.”
Doncic might not go off for 50 tonight, he’s very likely to drop a triple-double on his former team. However, for Shaq, that isn’t enough. He wants to see Luka use the trade as a chip on his shoulder.
“I’m not talking to nobody on that franchise because, my thing is, Jason Kidd, you knew, Mark Cuban, you knew, Dirk Nowitzki, you knew. I’m not talking to nobody in Dallas… I gotta use that to fuel my anger,” O’Neal added.
While it’s likely that the Mavericks’ head coach knew about the trade before its announcement, both Cuban and Nowitzki announced that they, like the fanbase, were left in the dark until Shams Charania reported on the move on February 1st.
As such, Shaq’s recommendation for Doncic to hold a grudge against them didn’t come as much from a place of truth as it did from a place of necessity. Candace Parker, his longtime colleague on TNT Tuesdays, understood where the Big Aristotle was coming from.
“You gotta act like somebody didn’t sign your autograph,” the three-time WNBA champion explained.
"I'm not talking to nobody in Dallas" 👀@SHAQ on what he'd do to motivate himself if he were in Luka's shoes tonight 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/H6QeJDuMf6
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 26, 2025
For the uninitiated, Parker was referring to O’Neal’s complicated history with Spurs legend David Robinson.
Before he joined the NBA, Shaq was a high school legend in San Antonio, achieving a 68-1 record for Robert G. Cole High School. As such, the arrival of The Admiral in Texas, dethroned Diesel as the hometown favorite.
To add to his woes, the uber athletic and high paced Robinson was a matchup nightmare for O’Neal. “The first time I played him, he ran me out the gym,” the 2000 NBA MVP later revealed.
To his credit, Shaq found a unique way of recovering his competitive edge over Robinson. He made up a rumor that the Spurs center had rejected his request for an autograph back in the day and used it as fuel during future matchups with The Admiral.
However, he later admitted to his tactics, stating, “I had to make up a rumor to get mad.” That’s what his advice is to Doncic too.
