Shaquille O’Neal recently made a statement that has fans doubting his loyalty to his favorite player Stephen Curry. While appearing on his show, ‘The Big Podcast with Shaq’, O’Neal was asked to pick one current player to pair alongside himself during his prime. He was quick with his answer, shouting the name “Anthony Edwards”, giving the Timberwolves star props for his playstyle and tenacity.
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Shaq-Fu had the following to say about his pick after he chose Ant-Man over Curry,
“Anthony Edwards, ’cause he is a dawg…The way he plays, he plays the right way. He plays hard and he plays with tenacity.”
Shaq seemed confident in his selection, as he even analyzed himself and Edwards playing against defensive stoppers like Victor Wembanyama. He further justified his selection, and talked about how Edwards and he would play off each other,
“When I get tired of posting you up and busting your a**…I’ll step out and I’ll bring Victor Wembanyama out with his long self and pause, and I’ll just dumb it down to Anthony Edwards.”
A pick-and-roll action with Anthony Edwards and Shaquille O’Neal would be truly devastating. Edwards should benefit from O’Neal pulling the center out of the lane. Teams have been mostly helpless while trying to guard Edwards on an island, especially without any help from defense, or a center like Gobert clogging the lane and defending the rim. Aside from that, the duo can also operate off isolation plays, as Edwards and O’Neal can both be open if the defense chooses to double or blitz either player.
Shaquille O’Neal’s new favorite
Shaquille O’Neal or ‘The Black Stephen Curry’ as he calls himself, is a huge Curry fan. Even though he has put Curry over himself in the All-time Greatest list, Shaq is still not ready to pick the 35-year-old over the 22-year-old Edwards.
The Wolves guard seems to be Shaq’s new “favorite”, as he seems to have grown protective towards Edwards. Just this month, O’Neal shut down all comparisons between Jordan and Edwards while appearing on his show, telling his co-host Adam Lefkoe,
“Forget MJ. He needs to be Ant-Edwards. And I’m not telling him how to think but when I was coming in, especially a guy they used to tell wasn’t good enough. But I tell them, they start comparing names, I was like, ‘F**k everybody.’ You going to know my name. So, no disrespect to Kareem and Wilt and Bill but I don’t want to hear them names.”
It seems the big fella has put aside his earlier take on keeping Chef Curry in the GOAT debate. Edwards has taken center stage with his recent performances in the league, even posting a career-high 51 points against the Wizards on Tuesday night.
With his ascension to superstar status, the comparisons with other greats such as Michael Jordan will definitely continue. While he hasn’t won any silverware yet, the Timberwolves are definitely in a great place to win it all, as even Karl-Anthony Towns is rumored to return before the playoffs begin.
