Shaquille O’Neal, above everything, is a natural-born entertainer. In all fairness, even his basketball dominance was just an extension of his ability to entertain the fans. In fact, as a player, O’Neal had almost as many memorable moments off the court as he did on it. His witty charm and infectious smile were hard to dislike. But combined with that innate mischievousness that the legendary O’Neal carries to this day, turned O’Neal into a superstar.
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In 2007, when O’Neal was still active and dominating (relatively), Shaq turned the All-Star weekend into one of the most memorable editions of the event. During the All-Star practice that year, O’Neal started an impromptu dance battle. At first, he walked up to LeBron James and showed him insane moves.
After LeBron’s response, Diesel then walked up to the man he has bullied the most – Dwight Howard. O’Neal showed Dwight some more incredible moves, however, Shaq wasn’t too impressed by Howard’s response.
Shaquille O’Neal hated Dwight Howard’s dance moves while he was impressed with LeBron James
In his book Shaq Uncut, O’Neal wrote of the 2007 All-Star practice in detail. He revealed the reason for starting the dance battle and then rated both LeBron James and Dwight Howard’s performances. In his book, lacking any semblance of subtility, Shaq declared LeBron to be a great dancer while taking a dig at his ‘Superman’ namesake.
Shaq: “As usual, the NBA was counting on me to provide some All-Star entertainment, and I didn’t let them down. We were having a “practice” at one of the All-Star jam sessions, and I started doing my break dancing at center court. I was spinning and turning on my head and doing my thing, and then I made my way over to LeBron and challenged him to a dance-off. Next thing you know the two of us are jamming together, wiggling and moving and shaking our booties. Then I shimmied over to Dwight Howard and challenged him. He answered with a few lame moves of his own, but there was no doubt who the crowd was digging the most. I may have been “old,” but the Big Shark still had the moves.”
Now, we know Shaq is often too hard on Dwight. But in all honesty, Howard’s moves were hardly worthy of any praise. While LeBron managed to show that he knew what he was doing, Howard seemed reluctant and nervous. But kudos to him for at least trying. It’s unfortunate that trying deserves no praise in Shaq’s rule book.
Shaq has had multiple altercations with Dwight over the years
Despite their similarities, Dwight Howard and Shaquille O’Neal couldn’t be more different. Howard was undeniably an incredible talent. He had the athleticism and the defensive presence to help him carve a path to greatness. In fact, he was often compared to Shaq and his dominance, which the Lakers legend understandably took personally.
Since, the two have butted their heads often and Shaquille O’Neal has had the last word mostly. He rekindled the feud once again after Howard moved to Taiwan. It’s hard to say if Diesel plans on relenting any time soon. But either way, Dwight Howard certainly needed to dance better.
