Shaquille O’Neal and his days with the Los Angeles Lakers contain tons of entertaining stories for the fans. The seven-foot legend was a fierce competitor and his way of communicating with teammates was for a lack of better word, different. A former teammate from the Lakers recently narrated a story that would give weight to the above argument. He claimed that Shaq was the major reason that he butted heads with one of his teammates.

J.R. Rider recently sat down with Kevin Garnett narrating his stories from his stint at the LA side. One of which narrated the birth of his rivalry with Eddie Jones, courtesy of the Big Man himself.

J.R. Rider blamed Shaquille O’Neal for his rivalry with Eddie Jones

The 2001 NBA Champion recently came on the KG Certified podcast for an entertaining discussion on his eventful career. While talking to Garnett, Rider mentioned how Shaq influenced his beef with Jones which occurred during his time with the Los Angeles Lakers.

“Eddie Jones, because of Shaq we had a beef.” Said Rider. He further added, “Me and Eddie never had no stuff, he didn’t do nothing personally to me. He had a good play on me. We was on the same team back then as a matter of fact. And Shaq juiced it up, pumped it up, and he bit, and I said all right motherf***er it’s on. And ever since then, I’ve been at his helmet“.

The seven-foot legend was a notorious trash talker, even to his teammates, and in an attempt to encourage his teammates he unknowingly gave birth to a rivalry. 

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However, Shaq is known to pump up the youngsters in his team. Considering Eddie Jones was just starting out in the NBA he thought it was fit to uplift Jones and his talent. The Lakers legend has famously tried to mentor the rookies in his team while showering some tough love on them.

Shaq and his ways to motivate youngsters in his team

Although Kobe Bryant was a different breed, he was still just 18 when he first stepped into the Lakers. The Big Aristotle used to rile him up to get the best out of him on the court.

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Dwyane Wade also faced a similar fate in his initial years at the Miami Heat. He was just a year old in the NBA when Shaq joined the Heat. In the documentary Shaq, D-Wade mentioned how the seven-foot giant used to give him a hard time, a decision which resulted in his NBA Finals MVP in 2006.