What should have been an all-hands-on-deck approach from the Mavericks, especially considering the injury-ridden Luka Doncic on board, turned out to be something of a one-man show. Well, at least for the most part. However, Dallas always had someone from the Cs that stood in their way, whether it be the star players or someone unpredictable, like Payton Pritchard. Despite Jason Kidd’s apparent ruse to shake the trust between Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, they were incredible!

Talking about Kidd’s try, Shaquille O’Neal had a few words of advice for the superstar duo of Boston. The ‘Big Diesel’ gave his run with the Lakers as an example. From what he learned, the moment one forgets the useless titles and focuses on winning, that’s when real success happens. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whose team it is or who is better than the other.

Of course, Shaq narrated this during the pregame show, and therefore, the chances of JB seeing this were unlikely. So when he got Brown for a post-game talk, O’Neal repeated it for his benefit. “Jaylen, I don’t have a question, but I’m going to give you some G14 classification information because this is going to be the last time you see me. It’s a riddle.”

“Do not get fixated on useless titles. Doesn’t matter who’s who or they say who’s what. It ain’t time for all that right now. Do what you got to do and get it done,” Shaq said to which Brown nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly. When his co-host, Matt Winer, asked Jaylen if any of that made sense, he immediately responded ‘No,’ with a straight face, causing everyone to burst out in laughter. O’Neal then proceeded to break it down.

“They’re trying to separate you and your guy”: Shaq explains his riddle-advice to Jaylen Brown

If a team or a player has no rings to show, many see it as a failure. Especially when they are on a championship-caliber team and surrounded by such teammates. And when there is a popular narrative going on around you that puts you up there on the pedestal, it’s easy to get carried away. It can get to a point where it can cause a rift between the guys whom you are being compared against, in turn affecting the whole team.

And this was exactly what the ex-Lakers center warned against. “They’re trying to separate you and your guy by saying who’s better. … who’s the man don’t matter. Let’s go win these championships!” Jaylen Brown couldn’t agree more, especially now that it made a lot more sense than Shaq‘s ‘riddled’ G14 information earlier.

In fact, Brown had a similar response when asked what he thought about Kidd’s mind game. “We’ve been just extremely focused on what our roles and our jobs are. … Right now, at this point, it’s whatever it takes to win and we can’t let any outside interpretations try to get in between.”

Clearly, they showed that trust tonight! But before you go, be sure to check this video of Leonardo Armato’s take on Caitlin Clark vs Angel Reese.

Don’t forget to check back in for more such updates!