Shaquille O’Neal and Dirk Nowitzki recently discussed one of the biggest ‘What Ifs’ of the NBA. What if Shaq and Dirk teamed up in Dallas? Even though there is no logical way to find an answer to that, an assumption from the horse’s mouth is the best we can get. The Dallas Mavericks legend recently made an appearance on The Big Podcast with Shaq where he was asked to name the players, he would’ve loved to be teammates with. After Dirk named Shaq on that list, the big fella unveiled that he tried to make that happen.
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The obvious man to name for the 45-year-old was his idol, Michael Jordan. He said, “You know, I’m the biggest Michael Jordan guy. That was my hero growing up in the 90s. I mean, I would’ve loved to obviously play with him.” Other than MJ, Dirk said that he would have also loved to play with the late, great Kobe Bryant as he was the closest to Jordan’s greatness.
But as a 7-foot giant himself, the Hall of Famer said that he would’ve enjoyed playing alongside the most dominant big man of all time, Mr. Diesel. He said, “I think you would’ve helped me get a lot of looks from the outside.” While Shaq smiled hearing his name from one of the all-time greats, he waited his turn to tell Dirk that he tried to pull off a trick with Mark Cuban to land in Dallas. He said, “Trust me, I tried to get to Dallas many times.”
Shaq said that when he left LA, he was trying to work something out with Cuban, behind the scenes, so that he gets to play for the Mavs. However, there were some issues that didn’t allow Shaq to be traded to Dallas. He said, “I called Mark to say, Mark, whatever you gotta do to get me there, and he’s like, ‘The Lakers won’t do it, man’, I was like, f***ing make them do it, Mark.” Even though they never got to be teammates, Shaq and Dirk have always respected one another as competitors.
Dirk Nowitzki once said Shaquille O’Neal was the toughest to guard
It’s no secret that guarding a 7’1, 325 lbs man is equivalent to moving mountains, however, as a fierce competitor, Dirk had no choice but to make the attempt. The Mavs legend faced the big fella on the biggest stage, during the 2006 NBA Finals. At that time, Shaq was playing for the Miami Heat. Even though he was towards the end of his prime, Shaq and Dwyane Wade managed to beat Dallas in six games to win the trophy.
During a conversation with Shot Science Basketball in 2019, Dirk named Shaq on the list of players he thought were impossible to guard. He recalled being handed the responsibility by his coach to guard Shaq. He said, “I kinda looked at him, I was like, is this a joke?” Dirk said that none of his plans worked against the big fella, and after that, he never guarded him again.
