Shaquille O’Neal’s need for dominance is no joke. Be it on the court or off it. When the 4x champion isn’t busy with his broadcasting or podcast duties, we see him don his rapper suit. Because come on, the man has dominated the rap scene just as well as he did on the court. Of course, not to the level of legends in the field, but the 7-foot big man does have an impressive resume when it comes to his music career, even collaborating with the ‘King of Pop,’ Michael Jackson in the ’90s! Another NBA athlete who seems to have found quite the success in the field is Damian Lillard, a.k.a, Dame D.O.L.L.A.

Considerably a rookie when compared to the great ‘DJ Diesel,’ Lillard has never shied away from asserting his dominance, either. No, you didn’t read that wrong. Only, we are referring to the dominance Dame showcased on the rap scene. You’d have gotten an idea of where we are going with this. But if you are like our girl, Flau’Jae Johnson, here, looking for a quick refresher, we’ve got you covered.

Damian Lillard recounts the diss battle with Shaq

Joining Johnson on the latest episode of her podcast, Best of Both Worlds with Flau’Jae, Lillard reminisced about the “dust-up” he had with Shaq in 2019. The pair were discussing his experience working with Shaq in the remix of Rick Ross and Meek Mill’s track, “Shaq & Kobe”. “Ross hit me and he was like, ‘Man, I want to get you on this remix I’mma have. Shaq do it, you know. Shaq went crazy, so you got to go crazy.”

But of course, the highlight of their chat was when Lillard went back in time. “You gonna be weak,” he warned Flau’Jae, a rapper herself. Getting ready to narrate the comical back-and-forth, Damian had a little smile on his face. “I was on Joe Budden’s podcast. He was like, ‘Who the best basketball player out the league to rap the best?” I was like, ‘Me.’ He was like, ‘You better than Shaq?’ I was like ‘I mean Shaq had major success. You can’t take that away from [him]. But I feel like as an actual art, like rapper rapper, I think I’m the best rapper.'”

Oh, boy! Dame just dug his own grave. And ‘Shaq-Fu’ let him know that. “Somebody was like, ‘Man, Shaq dissed you.’ And they sent me a link. I clicked on it and he actually did diss me.”

 If you forgot what that looked like, here’s ‘Shaq the Rapping Puppet’.

Did this scare the blossoming rapper? On the contrary, it fueled him. “I remember I left my house that day. It was during training camp. I left my house that day and went to the studio and recorded something back [Reign Reign Go Away]. And then I was sitting there thinking all type of sh*t. So I did another one and put that one out [I Rest My Case]. And then he did one, and it pretty much is just wrapped up,” Lillard finished.

Short as it was, it surely was intense. But it seems like for Shaq, it was all just harmless fun.

O’Neal declared that the “thing” between him and Dame was “just for fun”

About a month after the rap battle, Shaq looked like he was way past the Lillard feud. Hold up, it wasn’t even a feud to begin with! “The thing that went on for me and him was just for fun,” the multi-talented NBA legend said in a 2019 October “NBA on TNT American Express Road Show” event in Los Angeles. But is it really, though?

“My thing is, if you say you’re better than me, I accept the challenge. If he says ‘I look better than you,’ then okay, I gotta hit the gym and work out; if he says ‘My shoes are whiter than yours,’ then I gotta go to the store and pick out a better pair,” he further added, by way of an explanation.

And yet, O’Neal still maintains that there was no bad blood between him and Damian Lillard.

In a November 2023 interview with USA Today Sports’ ‘For The Win,’ the 15x All-Star made it a point to clarify “It’s not beef. It’s competition.” And where does one of the greatest centers of the NBA draw the line between beef and competition? “Competition-wise, anything I do, you can’t say you’re better than me. Now you’re challenging me … We’re cool. I don’t have beef. But I love competition.”

Well … yeah, we’re just going to leave it at that. If you know, you know.