“Michael Jordan was Perfection”: Despite LeBron James’ Scoring Feat, Shaquille O’Neal Ranks Kobe Bryant Above the Lakers Superstar

Shaquille O’Neal is as outspoken as they get. The 7ft 1″ giant, who has in recent times become the connoisseur of the game, was recently on the Fluent & Chill Podcast. During the show, O’Neal, recovering from hip surgery, was debating all-time greats with his ‘cousin’ Jermaine. The former Lakers superstar immediately came on the offensive and reminded the hosts how they had once left him out of the all-time greats list.

Shaq then questioned Jermaine’s list. The ‘cousin’ did not include Kobe Bryant in his top ten list. O’Neal, a little surprised by it, asked the host to repeat. Shaq then asked how Jermaine had ranked LeBron James over Kobe. Jermaine began to list out his points only for O’Neal to cut him off and give his own analogy. An analogy that compared Bryant to Michael Jordan.

Shaquille O’Neal puts Kobe Bryant over LeBron James

After Jermaine shared his list, Shaquille O’Neal launched into a defense for Bryant. O’Neal stated, as a matter of fact, that Michael Jordan was perfection. O’Neal then claimed Lthat because Kobe Bryant was almost like Jordan, he was almost perfect and implied that he was therefore better than LeBron James.

When his ‘cousin’ tried to explain his case, O’Neal again reminded him that Kobe was one of the greatest. He even confessed that leaving Kobe Bryant out of such lists was disrespectful to his former teammate and fellow Lakers legend.

 Shaq: “I think Michael Jordan was perfection, right? Who was the closest thing to Mike?”After Jermaine’s denial, O’neal reiterated, “If you are the closest thing to perfection, what does that make you? Pretty f**king good.”

O’Neal continued: “Good thing about these conversations, every body is gonna have their different opinions. I always thought it was disrespectful. You can compare whoever you want but the fact that Kobe’s name was never mentioned when you talk about the greats, I thought that was a little disrespectful.“

Shaq ranks Kobe and Michael Jordan over James

Clearly, Shaquille O’Neal wasn’t pleased with his cousin Jermaine. He ripped into him for not naming Kobe on his list. O’Neal, earlier in the podcast, also called out ‘Ticket’ for his comments on the most dominant player.

O’Neal certainly feels Kobe was a better player than LeBron. He is not only defending his Lakers teammate but also putting him on the same pedestal as Michael Jordan. It seems, despite LeBron James crossing Kareem Abdul Jabbar in the all time scoring list, O’Neal still doesn’t consider the 6ft 9″ superstar the greatest player of all time.