Dwight Howard elected to 2025 Hall of Fame has fans concerned about Shaquille O’Neal – “Shaq about to crashout!”

Dwight Howard peaked with the Orlando Magic, leading them to the 2009 Finals and earning three DPOYs and five All-NBA First Team honors.

Dwight Howard elected to 2025 Hall of Fame has fans concerned about Shaquille O’Neal – “Shaq about to crashout!”

Dwight Howard

The Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame is soon to induct Dwight Howard, one of the NBA’s best centers. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025 will include the eight-time All-Star, alongside former teammate Carmelo Anthony and other Springfield natives on his first vote.

This news has surprised many NBA fans, as Howard was still planning to play in the NBA. However, no team decided to sign the free agent.

Since leaving the Lakers in 2021, Dwight Howard has played in China and Europe—but now, he’s a 2025 Hall of Fame inductee. Just last month, he was also honored with induction into the Orlando Magic Hall of Fame after being named a finalist in February.

As per reports, an event at the NCAA Final Four on Saturday will formally announce his Naismith induction. Howard reached the pinnacle of his career with the Orlando Magic, leading the team to the 2009 NBA Finals, winning three consecutive Defensive Player of the Year Awards, and earning selections to the All-NBA first team five times in a row.

With 20.6 points, 13.9 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks per game from 2007–08 to 2011–12, he was the most influential player in the Magic’s history. Along with Dikembe Mutombo, Ben Wallace, and Rudy Gobert, he is still one of just four players to have won DPOY at least three times. Additionally, Howard gave one of the NBA’s greatest Slam Dunk Contest performances ever in 2008.

However, his latest induction does bring up a topic amongst fans regarding his beef with another NBA legend, Shaquille O’Neal. For context, O’Neal and Howard have a huge history of bad blood between them, with both stars calling each other out multiple times. Now, with Howard’s latest induction, it will be interesting to watch whether or not O’Neal chimes in on this topic.

Fans share their views on Dwight Howard being induced into the 2025 NBA Hall of Fame

Dwight Howard’s induction into the 2025 Hall of Fame has raised many eyebrows in and around the NBA community. The Orlando Magic selected Howard first overall in the 2004 NBA Draft, making him one of the latter prep-to-pro phenoms to enter the league. Ever since then, he has shaped an underlying legacy in the NBA.

However, many feel that his latest induction will surely upset his rival Shaquille O’Neal, someone who he still has a beef with. Many fans took to various social media apps to put forward their views and thoughts on this situation. One fan wrote on X, “Shaq about to crashout.” Check out some of the reactions below:

With the Lakers, Howard won his first and sole NBA championship during the pandemic season of 2019–20. Up to the conclusion of his career, he was a reliable, conventional big man; he was simply in a league where his position was becoming less and less popular. Although Howard made it apparent days earlier that he did not need it, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he received the call from Naismith upon his first ballot.

Dwight Howard shared an honest perspective regarding the beef with Shaquille O’Neal

For far too long, the continuous, trivial conflict between Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard has amused sports fans. D-Howard appeared as a guest on the most recent episode of Carmelo Anthony’s podcast, 7 PM in Brooklyn, where he discussed a wide range of subjects that even vaguely connected to basketball.

Howard enthusiastically conveyed his confusion about the situation when the topic of his feud with the legendary Big Aristotle was brought up.

This man [is] 50 years old… just angry for no reason… I have no idea where it came from. I have seen stuff ever since I was in Orlando about me trying to take ‘Superman’ and things like that, but the Superman for me came from all the things I was doing in the community. It came from me jumping over teammates, me doing stuff in the weight room… it wasn’t because I went around boasting about me being Superman.

Dwight Howard said

Melo encouraged them to put their differences aside after hearing Howard’s side of the story. This followed a January Twitter argument between Shaq and Howard. In the meantime, co-host The Kid Mero made the amusing suggestion that perhaps it’s time for the two to give Netflix the broadcasting rights to a celebrity boxing demonstration while donning gloves.