Shaquille O’Neal is often regarded as the most dominant center in NBA history, yet there are things about his career that he still isn’t happy about. And as he has alluded to time and time again, his getting ‘snubbed’ off the MVP award not once, but twice, stands among those topics to this day. In fact, this is such a sensitive conversation for Shaq that he almost even fought a certain veteran Kings player over it.
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During his appearance on the ‘Players Choice’, Jermaine Jackson shared,
“We were in a hotel room in Sacramento in May of 2002, me and him almost got into a fist fight and I had to calm him down because I had to explain him why I thought Allen Iverson was the league MVP.
He thinks that the league MVP is attached to the best player in the world. So, if you the league MVP, you’re the best in the world. That means he better than me. ‘Whoa, ho, ho. Hang on big fella’…I’m talking about like furniture started moving. It got a little crazy.”
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It is hard to blame Jackson, especially considering that he was only looking to have a logical discussion with O’Neal. However, given the Lakers legend’s headstrong nature, he was never going to let the former Kings man’s opinion slide. And so, he eventually backed off, even if it was only to save his life.
Now, given that this incident took place a long time ago, some may think that Shaq is now more mature about this topic. Unfortunately, this seems to be far from the case.
Past MVP awards are still a sore spot for Shaquille O’Neal
Shaquille O’Neal may not be as sensitive over having one less ring than Kobe Bryant anymore, but the MVP conversation is still a delicate topic to talk about, to this day. Despite having retired from the league years ago, Shaquille O’Neal still hasn’t been able to let go of the fact that Steve Nash won the league MVP award twice over him.
Shaq even brought up the MVP debate during one of the Lakers-Bucks games while talking to Stephen A. Smith and Chris Redd.
“You talking about all these guys that have three and four(MVP Awards). How is that they got three and four and Kobe only got one and I got one. I need to understand the criteria…Somebody needs to write down the criteria…Is it based on your team’s success or what you do as a player.”
Whatever the case may be, it is clear that Shaquille O’Neal still has some hard feelings regarding the MVPs he missed out on. And it is a safe bet that even if Shaq found out what the actual criteria are to be honored with the award, he would never be satisfied with the outcome.
