“Stop Acting”: Lakers Legend Shaquille O’Neal Laughs Off the Idea of Dwight Howard Being a Future Hall of Famer

The verbal banter between Shaquille O’Neal and Lakers’ Dwight Howard is not ending anytime soon. The only distinction is that the former has been brutally vocal, while the latter has been quiet lately. 

Shaq opened the dusty file of their age-old rivalry just as the Los Angeles Lakers won their 17th title. He praised most of LeBron James‘ men, minus Dwight Howard. His stance was clear- one can not celebrate for something he has not achieved through hard work. While this can sound frustrating to Dwight’s fans, Shaq has yet again backed his remark with some reasoning.

Shaquille O’Neal is unloading bombs on Lakers’ Dwight Howard

The former Laker laughed off the potential Hall of Fame mention on Dwight’s name. This also raised some eyebrows because Dwight is an 8-time NBA All-star, 3-time DPOY, now an NBA champion, and hence can’t be easily rejected.

Evidently, Shaq could not swallow the celebratory posts by Dwight on his Instagram handle. In a recent interview, the 4-time NBA Champion tried to clear himself of all the hatred he has been receiving for mocking the 34-YO forward. The Big Shamrock blamed Dwight for “doing the video like he won the title by himself.”

The 48-YO also expressed, “He was on the thing, ‘Oh I did that’ and all I said was, take a picture, be quiet, stop acting like you did the most. That’s all I said and everybody was giving me flag, they saying I’m hating. So I’m asking to uncle Mike… if I was wrong, I’ll apologize to Dwight right now.”

Mr. Michael Irvin, a former Footballer, agreed with Shaq’s views and expressed how owning a ring is one thing while winning one is a whole different ball game. After gaining the support, Shaq added, “So, therefore, based on that answer, I ain’t apologizing for nothing.”

Do these two big men have a history together?

Just to put things into perspective, this banter share did not take birth out of thin air. In fact, their feud goes back to 2010 when Dwight was playing for the Orlando Magic and Shaq for the Cleveland Cavaliers. The fight was over the “Superman” nickname, where Shaq had said, “you tell me who the real superman is.”

This did not go well with 6’11” Dwight ‘Steel Man’ Howard and the rivalry got extended to social media. The friendly back-and-forth kept taking place, and all that amounted to the recent remarks. 

Dwight had earlier posted a picture on his IG, writing, “Imma CHAMP. Nobody or nothing can take that away. Big champ. Man. I can’t believe it. World Champion.” Now, a curious, creative, and idle mind can connect the words “nobody” and “Big” with Shaq, but nobody knows who was targeted there.

What do you think, is Shaq the greatest big man to have won titles in the past two decades? Help us know your views in the comments.