Shaquille O’Neal has made it very clear over the decades that he has quite the affinity for combat sports. While at the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul exhibition game, he displayed this love for fighting while heavily alluding to a fight that could happen between him and NFL legend, Rob Gronkowski. In the midst of it all, Dwight Howard seems to want to get a piece of Shaq as well.
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Howard took to his social media to publicly call the Lakers legend out. “Shaq wassup, let’s make some bread,” said Howard. The boxing glove emoji was a tell-all sign of Howard wanting to ‘square up’ with Shaq.
Shaq wassup let’s make bread
— Dwight Howard (@DwightHoward) November 16, 2024
If the two were to fight, it wouldn’t be shocking to see betting lines favor Howard over Shaq by a wide margin. The former is in vastly better shape and can still be a serviceable big-man in the NBA according to him. He’s gone as far as to call the OKC Thunder organization out following Chet Holmgren’s injury to sign him to their roster.
O’Neal of course, is the embodiment of confidence. Calling himself the ‘Most Dominant Ever’ across NBA history, it’s certain that Shaq truly believes he could beat either Gronk or Dwight in the ring despite over a decade between them. He has not responded to Dwight as of yet and it’s unclear if he will.
O’Neal’s potential response to Dwight hinges on how he feels towards him. It’s no secret the two have quite the contentious relationship. However, if Shaq truly does want to settle his ‘beef’ with Howard, perhaps boxing it out might be the solution.
Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard have been at a war of words for years
Shaq and Dwight do not like each other. At the very least, Dwight doesn’t fully understand why Shaq isn’t fond of him and so retaliates with several verbal defenses.
The ‘Superman’ gimmick that Dwight adopted from Shaq was perhaps the starting point of why they never meshed. This is considering the fact that the latter was the originator when it comes to adopting the DC Comics hero as his persona.
Dwight has publicly stated he doesn’t understand the issue that Shaq has with him. He even called ‘cap’ on the 4x champ claiming he tried to reach out to Dwight, stating that has never been the case.
O’Neal’s perspective, as he said on the ‘Old Man and the Three’ podcast, doesn’t align with his previous statements against Dwight. He would say that he actually likes Dwight and jokes around with his criticism, before implying that Dwight is sensitive.
Whether this is truly the case or not remains to be seen. However, it is understandable as to why Dwight has an issue with his name constantly being besmirched by an NBA great, especially unprovoked.
