Shaq on Whether the LA Clippers Can Challenge the Lakers: 'Bro, We Said That Last Year'
Shaquille O’Neal has been spouting quite a bit of controversy in the past 24 hours.
Last night, O’Neal called out Donnavan Mitchell during his postgame interview with the TNT crew, telling the Jazz guard, “I said tonight that you are one of my favorite players, but you don’t have what it takes to get to the next level,” and asking him what he thought about that statement. The exchange was uncomfortable, to say the least.
The next morning, Shaq took aim at the LA Clippers while making an appearance on ESPN’s First Take. Stephen A. Smith asked O’Neal if there were any Western Conference teams capable of knocking off the reigning champion Los Angeles Lakers. Smith had to push O’Neal even to mention the Clippers, and when he did, it wasn’t in a positive light:
“Bro, we said that last year,” the former Laker said when asked if Clippers had a shot at overthrowing their crosstown rival. “Until the Clippers beat them, it’s just still the same old talk.”
After some time removed from the famed fallout with Kobe Bryant and the Lakers in 2004, which led to O’Neal being traded to Miami, Shaq has been a staunch supporter of his former team as a member of the media. It’s no surprise that he would back the Lakers as championship favorites and brush off the little-brother Clippers as another false contender. He knew what he was doing when he refused even to mention the team until Smith prompted him. To him, the Clippers will always be the scrub B-team on whom he dropped a career-high 61 points on his 28th birthday back in 2000.
Shaq’s comments are indicative of how the national media are currently viewing the Clippers. Having the best offense in the league means nothing to them, and talking heads who don’t watch them every night will not change their stance on them as chokers until they face their demons in the playoffs.
