“I don’t care about no Superman name, It was nothing to do with Shaq”: Dwight Howard addresses his feud with Shaquille O’Neal, extending an olive branch

During a recent interview with Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks, Dwight Howard addressed his forever feud with Shaquille O’Neal. Howard doesn’t care about the Superman nickname.

The never-ending rift between Dwight Howard and Shaquille O’Neal is not alien to public knowledge. The Big Diesel has despised Howard’s comparisons to him. The two big men share a very similar trajectory in their respective careers.

Both Howard and O’Neal were drafted by the Orlando Magic and moved to the LA Lakers. Many analysts and pundits believed both the centers had a similar way of playing the game. However, there was no doubt that Shaq was a much more accomplished and dominant player than Howard.

Shaq detested Howard’s comparison to him. However, matters got worse when fans started to address Howard as Superman, courtesy of the 2008 Slam Dunk Contest, something O’Neal took offense to. The nickname Superman is very close to Shaq. The three-time Finals MVP even has a Superman emblem on his cars and a tattoo on his arm.

Also read: “Was Dwight Howard’s exclusion from the NBA’s top-75 players of all time really a snub?”: The case for the likes Bill Walton, Patrick Ewing over former Orlando Magic center

During a recent conversation with Taylor Rooks, Howard addressed his rift with the Lakers legend. The 35-year old doesn’t understand why does Shaq hates on him so much.

Dwight Howard addresses his controversial Superman controversy with Shaquille O’Neal.

Howard recently stated that he would like to have a conversation with Shaq. The former Slam Dunk contest winner did a hilarious impression of Shaq, talking about their rift.

Below are a few excerpts from the conversation.

“It’s like every time something goes on it seems like he has an issue with me, or he’s talking bad about me. For me, it’s like ‘I don’t care about no Superman name. It’s just a name and there are so many people around the world who carry that name and it should be bigger than just what you do on the basketball court. How you live your life, how you treat people, how you carry yourself. Your character. To me, that’s Superman, and that ‘S’, it stands for hope. It was nothing to do with Shaq. Nothing to be like him or anything like that.” said the three-time DPOY

“But if a guy wants to be like me, I’m welcome to it. Like hey man, let me help you out. Let me show you what I did to get to where I’m at and hopefully you can take it to the next level. So I would love to sit down and have a conversation with him.

I always tell people, Shaq is the most dominant player to ever play. So I always give him his props. I would never disrespect him. But, for me, I love to have fun and joke, just like he does. So that’s why I wanna have a conversation like ‘hey bro, we supposed to be like this.”‘

(During the 18:51 minute, Howard addresses his rift with Shaq)

Also read: I knew politics was the reason, I wasn’t going to be on the list”: Dwight Howard talks about being snubbed from the NBA’s 75th-anniversary team, and how he’s unaffected by it

In what it seems, Howard has extended the olive branch to Shaq. However, one hopes these Lakers veterans resolve their issues.