“Never Paid Attention To Shaq”: Dwight Howard Recalls When He First Heard Of Shaquille O’Neal

Dwight Howard’s ‘beef’ with Shaquille O’Neal is a tale as old as time. The two don’t seem to get along in the slightest with a bevy of issues that surface whenever one brings up the other’s name. In their latest addition to this feud, Howard admitted on the ‘Entirely NBA’ podcast he had no clue who the ‘Big Aristotle’ was until the 2001 NBA Finals.

“I never paid attention to Shaq until I saw him win against Philly. That’s the first time I really knew who Shaq was when he beat Philly with the Lakers. I was in the 11^th grade.”

News travels at its own pace to each individual. Perhaps Dwight was so out of the loop when it comes to the happenings around the NBA that he genuinely did not know who O’Neal was.

This is however, a difficult concept to wrap one’s head around. Shaq had been one of the biggest and most marketable names across North American sports for about a decade from 1992-2001. With Dwight’s life revolving around basketball, it seems wild to think that he was in his mid to late teens when he first heard the name ‘Shaq’.

This statement from Howard came after he mocked the Lakers legend for being up in arms about the ‘Superman’ moniker. The two former Magic centers have been feuding over ‘rights’ to this nickname for years now. Cut to present day and Dwight seems to be thoroughly done with any sort of disagreement regarding this.

“Okay man, you won. God damn. Go ahead and chill out,” said Dwight. Shaq has made his allegiance to Superman very clear from the start. Not only is he his favorite superhero, but he also starred in ‘Steel’, a variant of the ‘Man of Steel’ as the titular character. Not to mention the ‘S’ emblem tattoo on his arm.

Will Dwight and Shaq step in the ring together?

Shaq wants to arrange a bout between NBA and NFL players in the boxing ring. This idea spawned during the night of Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson. Gronk and O’Neal seem to be heading their respective divisions and while nothing is finalized, this event is more likely to happen than not.

Howard heard of this and threw his hat in the ring, calling out the 3x Finals MVP on ‘X’. This warranted a response from him, with Shaq saying:

“Gotta have more than one ring to get in the ring with me. I’ll stick with a real champion like Rob Gronkowski and you can have the Superman belt. All yours buddy.”

The Superman storyline has been brought back into the mix yet again, unprovoked. This clearly is a touchy subject for Shaq but it’s surprising to hear him want to give up the moniker.

The two ended their exchange off fairly amicably with Shaq urging Dwight to just join the show rather than fight him. He did however give the caveat of them ‘squaring up’ if DH12 makes it to the Hall of Fame.