“Love You Jeanie Buss”: Being Left Out for Ex-lover Phil Jackson, Shaquille O’Neal Uses ‘Threads’ to Clarify Feelings Towards $500M Worth Lakers Owner

The Los Angeles Lakers are the most successful NBA franchise in league history, along with the Boston Celtics. So many all-time greats have played for the purple and gold side that the list of NBA’s all-time greats often overlap with the Lakers’ all-time greats. Therefore, choosing the top five most important Lakers is a thankless job bound to attract controversy. But Jeanie Buss did exactly that and received criticism for snubbing Shaquille O’Neal from the list. Shaq was the most dominant player on the Lakers side that secured the franchise’s first and only three-peat, bagging the MVP award in all three Finals series. Therefore, NBA fans didn’t like Buss including the likes of LeBron James and her ex-fiancee Phil Jackson before Shaq on the list.

 

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Jeff Pearlman documented the controversial relationship between Jeanie Buss and Phil Jackson in his book Three-Ring Circus. Buss reacted favorably to Jackson’s advances while he was the head coach of the Lakers. However, the $500 million worth businesswoman wanted to keep the relationship public to prevent a potential scandal causing a rift within the organization. The duo would get engaged before breaking up their 17-year-old relationship. Buss recently diverted public attention to her former partner after choosing him over Shaquille O’Neal in her Lakers’ all-time list. Meanwhile, Shaq recently responded to the whole fiasco, clarifying his thoughts on Jeanie Buss.

Shaquille O’Neal responds to Jeanie Buss’ snub

After Buss decided to choose LeBron James and Phil Jackson on the list ahead of him, Shaq seemed heartbroken by the decision. He posted a picture of the listed players and wrote ‘whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy’, in the caption.

Many members of the NBA community pointed out that LeBron James may be one of the greatest players of all time, but he has won only one Championship with the LakeShow. On the other hand, Phil Jackson might have delivered three Championships to the LA side, but he didn’t light up the court, like Shaq did, posting all-time numbers.

In the meantime, Shaq clarified his thoughts on Jeanie Buss’ contentious list. The Big Fella couldn’t stay quite after witnessing the drama slowly unfold in front of his eyes. Shaq recently wrote on social media, “people are asking if i’m mad. my answer of course not. love you jeannie buss.”

 

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Apart from LeBron James and Phil Jackson, Buss’ list had Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. While many people agreed with the list, many fans pointed out that James hasn’t earned his spot on the list yet.

FS1 host fixes Buss’ list

Fox Sports host Chris Broussard made a similar list of his own. He placed Jerry West and Shaq instead of James and Phil Jackson. He also explained his reasoning for doing so in detail.

Here’s @Chris_Broussard ’s breakdown of the Top 5 Most Important Lakers. And yes, he included Shaq. 👀 pic.twitter.com/YW4xxAyPyR

— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) July 6, 2023

Which list do you think is the better one? Let us know in the comments below.