Shaquille O’Neal has often been asked for his take on who the greatest NBA players of all time are. While he has previously given contradicting takes on the matter, this time, he posted a more certain video featuring a strong GOAT contestant, LeBron James. Shaq posted a video from a previous Fox Sports interview with LeBron, where he was asked to name his top three players of all time, in no particular order.
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While he was confused with the list, he started it off pretty quickly with Michael Jordan’s name. The clip was created by ‘josh.canning24’ who edited the original video to make it seem as if LeBron had named MJ thrice. The clip also broke through into a Jordan reel in itself each time LeBron took his name.
Shaq shared the clip via his own Instagram story, suggesting that he agreed with LeBron’s notion that MJ was the obvious best of all time. However, the original video came from a Fox Sports interview in which LeBron was merely confused about naming the three best players of all time.
Shaq puts up a clip of LBJ calling MJ one of the top 3 players of all time pic.twitter.com/ZhbcOpn11s
— tragicpatek (@tragicpatek) November 17, 2023
James thought that the question was unfair, and had stuttered a couple of times after naming MJ. He eventually claimed that Jordan, Julius Erving, and Larry Bird were his three best of all time players.
However, when asked about where Magic Johnson stood, LeBron claimed that he needed another name to add to the list. “I know, can I get 4? Alright, Magic,” he said, adding the LA Lakers’ icon’s name alongside his original list of three players.
Hence, while the edited reel shared by Shaq was created in order to make it seem that LeBron took MJ’s name thrice, he was actually only confused and ended up naming 4 players. LeBron suggested that all four players that he named deserved to be on the list, but had shown no hesitation in naming Michael Jordan, first and foremost.
Shaquille O’Neal seems confused with the overall GOAT debate
Around a year ago, Shaquille O’Neal appeared on the ‘Impaulsive’ Podcast, alongside Logan Paul. The Lakers legend claimed that his obvious GOAT was Michael Jordan.
Talking about the extent of MJ’s achievements, including his 6 championships, individual awards, and range of records, Shaq claimed that MJ was the one real GOAT. The NBA on TNT analyst suggested that while a lot of great players, such as LeBron James and Julius Erving, have played in the league, none of them came close to eclipsing the extent of MJ’s NBA legacy.
However, he also said at the same time that LeBron would surpass Jordan if he ended up becoming the NBA’s leading scorer.
That is an achievement that James accelerated back in February 2023. Hence, LeBron seems to have completed the one achievement Shaq claimed will make him the GOAT. However, it appears that despite this, Shaq is considerably tilted toward MJ, despite having the utmost respect for James, who is also a former teammate.
