Denied by Shaquille O’Neal of a showdown because of a lack of rings, Dwight Howard may still have a chance. Not at challenging the 4x NBA champ, but a chance to try his luck for another ring. At least, that’s what Paul George and the cast of his podcast believe. Not that Howard didn’t try enough to make a comeback in the league. The discussion on Podcast P, however, was not about the possibility of the 3x DPOY returning to the NBA but his capability of playing at this level.

Taking the guest on the show, Phil Handy’s opinion into consideration, Howard’s physical ability is one thing that can be counted upon. “Dwight gonna be in shape. I don’t care what nobody say, he gonna be in shape,” Handy said. And then came the real question. Can Dwight Howard really play in the NBA now that he’s 39? “I’m pretty sure he could… Limited minutes…” Handy replied. Adding his agreement to this opinion was Paul George himself.

“Limited minute… Yeah… You want him to come playoff time. You want him on your team come playoff time,” George said. Podcast co-host Jackie Long, meanwhile, pointed towards the new skill-set that Dwight Howard could employ to his use. “He got good feet. He just won the Dancing with the Stars or something,” Long humorously said. Well, Howard didn’t win the show, but he managed to survive and contest for quite long alongside his partner, Daniella Karagach.

The real question, however, is if Dwight even wants to play in the league anymore. Yes, he appealed to Jeannie Buss to give him another chance when the Lakers owner appeared on his podcast. But let’s not forget that the 2020 NBA champ had humorously downplayed his request by making it in a singing form. Furthermore, Howard does not want his body to take an unwanted toll at this age now, as revealed by him in a discussion with Kevin Garnett.

The discussion emerged from KG asking D12 if he wants to be back in the league after looking at players nowadays landing 300 to 400 million dollars in deals. “I could. But, man, to be honest, I remember when me and you talked, you said one other thing after we got into it. You said, ‘you still want to be able to move around and walk for your kids,'” Howard said.

The former Lakers star further joked he does not want to end up having a Kenny Smith-like fate by making his body take the necessary toll. For those unaware, Smith suffers from knock knees because of his age-old knee injury and the subsequent toll on the knees from his NBA career. Now, it’s not known if Dwight knew about the former Houston Rockets’ star condition. Nevertheless, he made up for his remarks by showing love to Kenny. “No offense, Kenny. I love you, dawg. I got you.”

Well, Howard is not wrong about his age factor, which coincidentally also happens to be the reason that Shaq failed the challenge from D12.

Shaquille O’Neal opens up on denying Dwight Howard’s boxing challenge

Shaq isn’t the one to hold back, and on one of the recent episodes of The Big Podcast, he had a few choice words for Howard’s boxing challenge. Joined by 4x heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, Shaq kicked things off by asking Holyfield if he’d been secretly training his “enemy,” Dwight. The answer? A hard no.

For those out of the loop, this all started when Shaq, during the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul live broadcast on Netflix, floated the idea of an “NBA vs NFL” boxing showdown. “Coming soon. I’m talking boxing, fighting, football, basketball,” Shaq teased. Naturally, Howard pounced on the opportunity, calling Shaq out on X. “Shaq wassup 🥊 let’s make bread 😂.”

Shaq’s reply? Classic Big Diesel — “Gotta have more than one ring to get in the ring with me. I’ll stick with a real champion, and you can have the Superman belt, all yours buddy.” On the podcast, the 4x NBA champ broke it down further.

“Why (would) you wait until I’m 53 to challenge me? Why didn’t you challenge me when I was 43? … I wish I was 10 years younger. I’d have been like, yeah, let’s do it. But now I’m 53, and he’s still kind of young.” Fair point as no one wants another Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson.

While Shaq has hung up his basketball sneakers, Howard’s still keeping in shape with his Taiwan league and stints like DWTS. The original point that in the first place started the discussion on Podcast P about Dwight Howard’s capability to play in the league.