“I’m upset at him cause he messed up history,” Shaquille O’Neal blames Allen Iverson for DISRUPTING his plans to break Lakers record
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In the NBA Finals of 2001, Shaquille O’Neal was at the pinnacle of his extraordinarily strong abilities. He was an obvious candidate for MVP after the Lakers won the five-game series with him averaging 33 points, 15.8 rebounds, and 3.4 blocks per game.
Allen Iverson scored 48 points to help the Sixers win Game 1, which Philadelphia fans will remember for a very long time. On the podcast The Adam Lefkoe Show, O’Neal admitted that he may have been too lenient of Iverson.
Shaq claimed, “Every time we played AI… I could have blocked his shot multiple times. I just didn’t want to. I kind of coasted that year in the Finals where we wanted to go 16-0. We let him hit us for [48]. Listen, Iverson, he had his heart on the line, he played hard, and he did it his way. I was glad to go into the Hall of Fame with him. It’s unfortunate that a lot of these great players will be judged because they didn’t win. But listen, he’s one of the greatest to ever do it.
O’Neal’s 44 points and 20 rebounds in Game 1 make it hard to believe that he will be easy on Iverson. He obviously has a lot of appreciation for Iverson, though. As is typical in basketball, the better team won the best-of-seven series, but Iverson’s Game 1 masterclass has transcended the result in NBA history and defined his place in the basketball pantheon as one of the best players ever.
Allen Iverson Says Kobe Bryant Is The Only Player Who Can Compare To Michael Jordan
Kobe Bryant is ranked alongside Michael Jordan as one of the best players of all time by Allen Iverson. Allen Iverson always had the utmost respect for Kobe Bryant, who kept him from winning an NBA title, as well as his hero Michael Jordan.
AI engaged in intense battles with these two, consistently putting up a show for them and closely observing why they came to be regarded as two of the best players of all time. It’s not the first time we’ve seen Iverson lauding MJ and Kobe; he never holds back when it comes to expressing his affection for the athletes he respects.
Iverson recently spoke about Kobe Bryant during an episode of Vernon Maxwell’s podcast MaXed Out, comparing Bryant to Michael Jordan and the things he could do on the court, “Just a colossal amount of respect and admiration ” Iverson said.
“The dude was a monster. I hadn’t seen anything like that besides ‘Black Jesus.’ It was kinda like a spitting image. He could affect the game just like my hero. If anybody knows me, Black Jesus is everything to me. He was the one who gave me the vision. He was the one who made me want to be Allen Iverson on that dance floor. Kobe was just the same.” he further added.
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Rakibul John Rodgers
(1258 Articles Published)