LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal, two of the most dominating players in the NBA, teamed up in 2009-10 just to lose the conference semifinals to the Celtics.
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Anybody with all their senses intact will count LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal as top-10 players of all time, many will keep them even in their top-5. Those two in the same team meant destruction for the rest of the league.
But when they finally did come together in 2009 it wasn’t what everyone thought it could be. Shaq was in his 18th season in the NBA and as he accepts himself was “chasing rings”. The 15-time All-Star came to Cleveland Cavaliers following a year and a half stint with Steve Nash’s Phoenix Suns.
In his brief stop at the Land, the former Lakers MVP believes he could have helped LeBron James win his first ring had he stayed healthy.
Remember Shaq & LeBron with the Cavs?
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) September 30, 2021
Shaquille O’Neal believes he would have won LeBron James his first ring back in 2010
The Cleveland Cavaliers were the top team in the East and the Big Diesel, 37-years of age at the time helped them by chipping in with over 12-points, 6-rebounds, and 1-block per game in 53 regular season matches. But then he got injured late into the regular season.
“I knew my role: just to back [LeBron] up. If he looks to me, I score. If not, set picks, get him open, rebound, knock other players on their a*s. I knew my role. We were in the first place. We were playing against Boston, and Big Baby (Glen Davis), who could never stop me, did hack-a-Shaq. And as soon as I grabbed the ball, I couldn’t feel my thumb; I had that injury before; I knew my hand was broke.” said Shaq in an interview with Yahoo Sports.
O’Neal said he did everything he could to stay in shape during the weeks that he couldn’t play, but it just wasn’t enough.
“So, now when your hand is broke, you’re out four weeks; there’s nothing you can do,” he said. “Did cardio, I ate right, I went to the gym … I was there every night, running the treadmill. And then when I came back to play, I’m like, ‘I’m in people shape, but I’m not in basketball shape,’ and we could just never get it going again.”
Although he averaged 11.5-points and 5.5-rebounds just slightly below his season averages in 11 postseason contests, before his injury, the 3-time Finals MVP had been averaging 15.9-points and 6.9-rebounds in his 14 games before it.
Cavs’ season ended also at the hands of the Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals. C’s then went on to the Finals and lost it to Shaq’s arch-nemesis, just to rub salt to his injury they gave him earlier in the season.
Perhaps that injury might have stopped Shaq to win his 5th and LeBron his first ring, but Kobe Bryant would’ve had something to say to that.
The Lakers won the championship that year, which was also Kobe’s 5th ring, that famously took him one above his former teammate Shaquille O’Neal.
