Shaquille O’Neal Says He Would Have Teamed Up With Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen In Scathing Kevin Durant Criticism

Shaquille O’Neal epitomized the term dominance during his peak years. The giant of a man always led from the front. He spearheaded the LA Lakers to a three-peat, showcasing his leadership, a quality of his that isn’t talked about enough.

Shaq was always the “bus driver” for his teams, as he puts it, driving them to the pinnacle of success. He never chased championships by joining forces with other fearsome players, since all he craved was to lead from the front. The Lakers legend, however, won’t say the same thing about Kevin Durant.

Shaquille O’Neal recently evaluated the Golden State Warriors’ chances in the NBA Finals on his?podcast, The Big Podcast with Shaq. The topic of Draymond Green was eventually broached. Green made headlines this week for his comments about Stephen Curry not being awarded Finals MVP because he was double-teamed more frequently than Kevin Durant. Shaq was asked whether he agreed with Green’s comments or not.

“I agree, it’s like you have to be inside this world or you have to understand the terminology. When Charles Barkley made the comment “bus driver”, bus driver means it’s all about you. Wasn’t all about him though, it was about little Steph. We don’t stop Steph, and then when you stop Steph, other people have freedom,”?Shaq said.

“Yea, Durant is a great player, but he had a lot of freedom playing with Steph and Klay (Thompson), a lot of freedom. Freedom that he didn’t have when he was with OKC. When he was with OKC, he was the bus driver, and everybody was on him, on him, on him, on him….and he couldn’t close. And people were like ‘Hey you can’t close and you wanna join a team that beat you’ and then he didn’t understand why everybody was upset about that,” he added.

Shaquille O’Neal on joining Michael Jordan’s Bulls if he knew it was an option

After questioning KD’s choice to join hands with a team he couldn’t defeat, Shaq joked about forming his own super team. He stated that he would have joined forces with other great players as well if he knew it was okay.

“It was supposed to be about competition. If I knew it was okay to join people, f**k I would have joined the Bulls. I would have played with Mike and Scottie. And then I would have left them and played in my hometown San Antonio, went to Spurs. And then when Kenny and the Rockets beat us, I would have moved to Houston. But no, I was like ‘no, I want to beat all these guys.’ So Draymond was absolutely correct. Everybody had a lot of room because of Steph, everybody,”?Shaq said.

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Shaq definitely isn’t a fan of Durant’s decision to join the Warriors. However, he diverted attention away from the main subject when he stated that he would have joined Jordan’s Bulls.

Fair to say, a squad comprised of dominant forces like Michael Jordan and Shaq, combined with Scottie Pippen’s all-around game, would be the most unfair team in sports history. Jordan and the Chicago Bulls ran the league in the 1990s, capturing six titles in a ten-year stretch. If Shaq had joined forces with Jordan and Pippen back then, they could have easily buried any rival.

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Many would argue that when the Lakers added Gary Payton and Karl Malone in 2003, Shaq became a member of a super team. The 2 legends, though, were approaching the end of their careers, as Payton was 35 and Malone was 40. This Lakers team, either way, was not able to finish the job, as they were defeated by Detroit Pistons in the finals.

So, were the Los Angeles Lakers really a super team in 2003-04? Let us know how you feel in the comments below.