“I don’t celebrate 7th placed Lakers, I celebrate Steph Curry”: Shaquille O’Neal snubs his former team and is now rooting for the Warriors to win the 2022 Championship

The Los Angeles Lakers keep on losing games and along with it some big fans, former Laker Shaquille O’Neal is now supporting the Warriors.

As the Lakers are not able to get wins on a consistent basis, Shaquille O’Neal is fed up with the Big 3 failing to live up to the expectations.

The 4-time NBA Champion and TNT analyst is also one of the biggest fans of his former team since his retirement. Literally, the biggest.

But since his retirement, he hasn’t seen the Purple and Gold do the wonders it did during his time or the Kobe-Gasol era.

Also read: FS1 Analyst Skip Bayless mocks the King as the Lakers fell short to an undermanned Memphis team

Taking out the 2020 Championship season, the Lakers haven’t been able to dominate teams as they used to a decade ago. And the most dominant player of the Lakers’ franchise is upset that his team cannot get it going.

Shaq snubs Lakers for the Steph and the Warriors

Lakers are now quite far from the image of championship contenders. Thursday night they were humiliated by a shorthanded Grizzlies team, and currently stand at 7th in the West. And Shaquille O’Neal is sick of them. He talked about how he’s rooting for the Warriors now on ‘the Big Podcast’.

“I don’t celebrate 7th place. I celebrate Steph Curry.” 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 need the shirt @warriorsworld https://t.co/inPNmyZosP

— Shohei Ohtani Stan Account (@AndyKHLiu) December 9, 2021

Shaq has a job that requires him to critique the players and teams that are not performing well. With that, he is also biased towards the team where he achieved most of his success. He always expects his team to be favorites to win it all.

Last year even when the Lakers were in the play-in tournament, The Diesel was confident that they’ll be making it to the Finals at the very least. They failed due to the injuries to LeBron and AD.

They had the odds in their favor at the start of this season as well. Acquiring Russell Westbrook and turning the whole squad around did almost nothing for the Purple and Gold.

Also read: Russell Westbrook responds to the constant fault-finding against him

You cannot blame the man for switching sides to the most winningest team or Stephen Curry who might win yet another Unanimous MVP this year. Shaq is the man who was closest to winning that award and missed by just one vote in 2000.

He was also a 3-time Finals MVP for the Lakers, who three-peated from 2000-03. How can he support the team, which is not showing half the passion Shaq has for the game?

Lakers currently have 4 of the NBA’s top-75 players of all time and yet they cannot win 4 straight games.

About the author

Akash Murty

An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

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