Shaquille O’Neal recently stirred up a debate after he a controversial take that nobody in the league fears LeBron James. What Shaq meant by that is LeBron lacks the ‘killer’ instinct in his game and that is why no one is scared to face him. Making such a claim against one of the greatest players was evident to bring some backlash. On a recent episode of Gil’s Arena, Gilbert Arenas responded to Shaq’s comment and ended up ridiculing the 90s basketball in the process.
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On an episode of The Big Podcast with Shaq, the big fella said,
“I’ve heard players say, including myself, ‘I feared Mike [Michael Jordan].’ I’ve heard players in your [Mario Chalmers’s] generation say they feared Kobe. I’ve never really heard any player say they feared LeBron.”
Although Chalmers quickly said that LeBron is more loved as he likes to maintain such relationships in the league, Arenas picked up Shaq’s points to discuss on his show. He said that the 90s era of basketball was weak because they were scared of a player.
Arenas questioned the mindset of players being afraid of another player, even someone as great as Jordan. The NBA veteran then went on to explain how the late, great Kobe Bryant never followed the rules set around Jordan.
He said, “What did they tell Kobe when he first got in the league? Don’t look him [Jordan] in his eyes, and Kobe said, ‘What? Who? Don’t look who in the eyes?”
Arenas said that the veterans can’t claim they played in the “toughest era” if everyone was afraid of Michael Jordan in the league.
Players like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant used to get into their opponent’s head with their trash talk or by making some insane plays on the court. There have been several NBA stars, who have hundreds of stories when Jordan or Kobe impressed them by their work ethic or got into their head. Shaq maybe is missing that aura on the court by someone, who is dominating in the current era.
Mario Chalmers once explained why players don’t fear LeBron James
Players not fearing LBJ is one of the few criticisms of his reputation as one of the greatest of all time. What it often means is that LeBron can’t make things personal and dictate the outcome of the game by himself when needed. Even though that narrative is heavily debatable, Chalmers has been talking about it for a while.
Last year he talked about something similar during his conversation with Clutch Points. He said, “When I say players didn’t fear LeBron, LeBron has been beaten, MJ has not.”
However, he did say that there are a lot of people who speak against LeBron and the 4-time NBA champion wants to prove them wrong, which makes him a scary opponent. He said, “When LeBron first came to the Heat, people saw him as a villain. But when you line up next to him, you’re actually fearful of him because he’s trying to prove people wrong.”
There’s no end to this debate for a simple reason that there’s a clear generational divide. However, for the sake of interest in the sport, these conversations are important.
