“Why would I have beef with a man doing his job on the court?!”: Shaquille O’Neal goes into detail about his courtside conversation with Russell Westbrook

Lakers’ legend Shaquille O’Neal talks about his courtside conversation with Russell Westbrook when they visited the Orlando Magic

The Los Angeles Lakers are 48 games into the season and hold a 24-24 record to show for it. With this record, they hold the 9th seed in the West. When the season started, there were a lot of doubts about the advanced age of the Lakers’ squad, and how that could be troublesome. However, as the season has progressed, the troubles have been something else entirely.

LeBron James, in his 19th season, is playing some of the best basketball of his life, yet the Lakers are a .500 team. There are a lot of reasons behind the same, and one of them is Russell Westbrook. The 9x NBA All-Star has been not quite himself this season. His averages are the lowest they have been, since his sophomore season in the league, back in 2009-10. Sure, the injuries have slowed down the Lakers a lot, but not having Russ at the level they expected has been a problem too.

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Recently, Shaquille O’Neal went down to watch the Lakers play the Magic in Orlando. There, he was seen talking to Russ, while sitting courtside. The big guy talks about their conversation.

Shaquille O’Neal talks about his conversation with Russell Westbrook

Shaquille O’Neal is one of the best big men to ever play the game of basketball. His dominance ruled the late part of the ’90s and the early 2000s. Shaq spent 8 seasons with the Lakers, and won 3 rings with them.

During the Magic-Lakers clash, he had some words of advice for Russell Westbrook, which got misinterpreted as ‘beef”. On the Big Podcast with Shaq, the big fella cleared the air, and explained what he had told Brodie.

 

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Slowing down is actually really good advice for Russell Westbrook. Even though there has been a decline in his athleticism, Russ often tends to go full steam every time he has the ball. Slowing down and conserving his bursts for when he actually needs them, i.e, against the opposition in their court, would help Russ save energy.

Brodie paid heed to the advice, and instantly, it worked out for him. Hopefully, he would remember that for the time to come, and the Lakers would be better off for it.