Shaquille O’Neal Seemingly Admits Defeat to Dwight Howard’s Challenge, Accusing Him of Taking Unfair Advantage

Once you’re on Shaquille O’Neal‘s’s bad side, there’s no turning back—or so it seems. Just ask Dwight Howard, and he’ll probably give you a detailed account of every time he tried to squash the beef with Shaq, only to get rejected. It all started with a brief stunt involving Superman, snowballing into several rifts throughout the decade. The latest instance? When O’Neal tried to market a NFL vs NBA boxing match, and Howard replied. And, as expected, it only went downhill…

But before we go there, what exactly drove a wedge between these two? To know that, we’ll have to travel back to 2008, when comparisons between Diesel and Howard were rife. There were actually a lot of similarities between the duo—both were originally drafted by the Orlando Magic with the first overall pick in their respective drafts, both went to the NBA Finals with the Magic and lost, and then left the Magic for the Los Angeles Lakers. Notably, both were even nicknamed Superman, with Howard taking it a step further. During the 2008 NBA All-Star game, D-12 appeared at the Slam Dunk Contest in a Superman t-shirt with a cape….

Shaq viewed that move as Dwight Howard stealing his persona, giving birth to one of the most “ridiculous” feuds in NBA history. However, there have been times when Dwight genuinely reached out, sometimes publicly, with Shaq even hitting back with a “nope lol” on one occasion! But more on that later, and Shaq is once again pissed, albeit at the cost of admitting his loss.

During the latest episode of The Big Podcast that dropped on December 4, O’Neal recalled Howard’s request regarding the NBA vs NFL bout. Speaking to his special guest, four-time world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, O’Neal asked whether he trained his “enemy”, Dwight Howard.

After getting a negative answer, the former Lakers star argued why Howard expressed intense dissatisfaction at Howard’s antics. For the unversed: In light of the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul boxing bout (literally on the fight’s live Netflix broadcast), Shaq had expressed his wish to “put together NBA vs NFL“. “Coming soon. I’m talking boxing, fighting, football basketball,” he had said. Promptly, Howard had called out Shaq on X: Shaq  wassup 🥊 let’s make bread 😂”. 

“Gotta have more than one ring to get in the ring with me, I’ll stick with a real champion like, and you can have the Superman belt, all yours buddy,” O’Neal had hit back.

Talking about the same, the NBA icon told Holyfield, “My thing is, why (would) you wait until I’m 53 to challenge me? Why you didn’t challenge me when I was 43? Well, you know what? Yeah, like, I’m 53,” O’Neal said.

“I’m sure I could do something, but I don’t have the same effect that I had when I was 43. Like, I just, those are one of those times 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,”

Well, Shaq’s words might have substance there. Having said that, While Howard might not be playing in the NBA, he is keeping in shape. “I think from doing DWTS, it really boosted that for me, coz I am in great shape and I feel real good,” he admitted mid-November. The lifts, spins, and a new dance style every week kept the former NBA champion on his toes. So it would indeed prove a challenge for Shaq to take on Howard.

But not if Shaq decides to forgive his enemy first. Well, we’re sure Howard would breathe a sigh of relief if that’s ever the case!

Howard doesn’t want to fight

“I never had a problem with you so can we finally end this as adults,” wrote Dwight Howard on January 19 this year, in what can be called his nth effort at resolving the conflict. Shaq’s answer? “nope lol”.

And this isn’t even the first time when D-12 has reached out. On The OGs Podcast with Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller, the 38-year-old said, “There hasn’t been a time where Shaq has just reached out like that. I’ve reached out to Shaq myself on multiple occasions because I’m like ‘what’s the issue?’ Like, I understand the competitive side, but we don’t even compete against each other and it’s like two different two different stratospheres. Like, he played, he did his thing, nobody’s ever taken that away and I did my thing. I have reached out to him, and I would like for us to have some type of, you know, relationship.

Life is too short and for us to be who we are, there’s no way we shouldn’t be able to work together in any capacity.”

However, in an earlier conversation in 2018, Howard had also called Shaq “insecure” saying, “I think it’s a little insecurity on his part because people call him ‘Superman’ and they call me ‘Superman.’ But if I’m an older guy and it’s younger players that are being compared to me and they have that same nickname, I want to feel good about it.”

“I just think it comes off to me as a little bit insecure when you’re taking shots at somebody that’s 10, 12 years younger than you.” Well, only time will tell if the Diesel can get over his hatred, and make a friend out of Howard. Would you like to see that? Let us know in the comments below!