Shaquille O’Neal has carried the moniker of being the most dominant player for almost two decades now. However, he admitted to being “really mad” and slightly taken aback when Dallas legend, Dirk Nowitzki, overtook him back in 2015, to become the player with the sixth-largest point total. He currently sits at the 9th spot on the list, and the Big Fella dreads his removal from the Top 10, even calling himself a “bum”.
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During a recent episode of The Big Podcast with Shaq, O’Neal talked about the Dallas legend and some of their incredible battles over the years. They even matched up in the 2006 NBA Finals, which saw Shaq and a young Dwayne Wade pull off one of the greatest upsets in NBA history.
But even then, Dirk seems to have gotten the last laugh as less than a decade later, Nowitzki passed up Shaq to become the sixth leading scorer in NBA history, which was most dear to his scoring total.
During the show, Shaq admitted that he was “mad” upon hearing the news, explaining how at that moment, O’Neal understood that he would soon be headed for basketball irrelevancy. He forecasted himself being nudged out of the top-10 scorers list,
“Dirk I am mad at you. I didn’t know you passed me up until Adam told me. He was like your boy Dirk is about to pass you…I was f**king mad, because now what am I, number 9…I am going to be a fu**ing bum, I can’t believe it. I am about to be out of the top 10.”
While Shaq’s response to being passed up was surely hilarious, Nowitzki tried to assuage O’Neal’s hurt. He stated that, unlike Shaq, he played 21 seasons, and even made long-range shots till his career’s twilight days.
He emphasized that shooting a consistent amount of threes helped him cross O’Neal by the time his career was done. It was a humble analysis from Europe’s greatest basketball player. Additionally, Shaq also tried to know about his days in Dallas.
Shaquille O’Neal enquires into Dirk Nowitzski’s 21 years in Dallas
Dirk Nowitzki had the rare opportunity to only suit up for a singular franchise in his 21-year-long career in the NBA, similar to Shaq’s former Lakers running mate, Kobe Bryant. On the flip side, O’Neal played for over six teams during his 19 years in the league.
The Big Aristotle asked Dirk about his feelings playing for a single franchise his whole career and what went into such a rare opportunity materializing. Dirk replied,
“At the beginning, I didn’t really know what to expect and people here were great to me. They were loyal to me. They made me feel welcome. Then Mark buying the team end of my second year, and we developed a great relationship…I just sorta always felt like I owed it to the city and the franchise to make it work out.”
Closing out his statement, Nowitzki admitted that there were times when things got extremely challenging in Dallas. As a generational star, it was sometimes hard to stay with the Mavericks but fortunately for Nowitzki, his loyalty paid off, as the Dallas side won the franchise’s maiden title in 2011, and Dirk led them to it.
