Shaquille O’Neal’s Tracy McGrady Over Kobe Bryant Claim Sparks Fan Outrage: “Why does Shaq Do This?”

Shaquille O'Neal has so far been vehemently defending former Los Angeles Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant's legacy.

Shaquille O’Neal’s Tracy McGrady Over Kobe Bryant Claim Sparks Fan Outrage: “Why does Shaq Do This?”

Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady (Image via FirstSportz)

🔍 Explore this post with:

ChatGPTPerplexityGrok AIGoogle AI

Shaquille O’Neal was a superstar even before he joined the Los Angeles Lakers. After joining the purple and gold franchise, his partnership with Kobe Bryant became the stuff of legends as the pair won three straight NBA titles.

‘The Diesel’ was the NBA Finals MVP in those three seasons, establishing himself as the de facto No. 1 player in the league. That unofficial moniker was touted as the reason for their fallout a season later, and O’Neal took his talents to South Beach.

Years later, Bryant redeemed himself, winning two titles and reaffirming his status as one of the best to ever play the game. He and O’Neal patched up their differences and went on to become very close.

Their friendship was evident when the ‘Mamba’ passed away, and later when O’Neal kept pushing his former teammate’s name as one of the GOATs of basketball. The most recent of them was when Bleacher Report ranked Bryant as the 11th best player in history.

While hosting the Morris twins on The Big Podcast with Shaq, the Big Aristotle asked them if they agree with Tracy McGrady‘s recent statement that O’Neal would have still won three straight titles if he were in place of Bryant.

The twins did not agree, as they felt the Mamba Mentality was what made Kobe Bryant different from McGrady. To this, the four-time champion and TNT analyst said:

I might have to disagree. You don’t think I could have won three with T-Mac? I think I could have.

Shaquille O’Neal replied

The 53-year-old believes that if he were playing with Tracy McGrady, the outcome would have been the same. The twins agreed that the Hall of Fame guard was a great player, but not at the late-Lakers great’s level, mentality-wise.

Shaquille O’Neal’s comments upset fans

Basketball fans have already gone through a phase where they had to deal with Bleacher Report’s insulting ranking of Kobe Bryant. Now, for Shaquille O’Neal, who has been one of the Mamba’s biggest supporters, to say this probably took the wind out of them.

Many fans believe the Diesel did his late teammate dirty by comparing him to Tracy McGrady. They feel it was his way of reiterating that he was the alpha dog on those Los Angeles Lakers teams, and not Bryant.

Fans feel that in trying to give McGrady his flowers, O’Neal ended up adding insult to injury to the legacy of the late-great Kobe Bryant. Check out examples of those reactions below:

Shaquille O’Neal might not care about what fans say. However, he might address this on a later episode of his podcast, as fans might take their anger out on him for seemingly insulting Kobe Bryant.

Kobe Bryant vs Tracy McGrady alongside Shaquille O’Neal

The era Shaquille O’Neal and the Morris twins were discussing was a time when the former was taking over as the most dominant player in the league. He was the de facto Alpha on that Los Angeles Lakers squad.

Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant with their trophies
Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant with their trophies (Image via People)

Kobe Bryant was his No. 2, but albeit a great one at that. In that same timeline, Tracy McGrady was a two-time scoring champion and one of the best guards in the league, and at times, was unstoppable.

That was not the notion opponents had about the Lakers guard. Rather, that moniker was reserved for O’Neal. That is probably why the latter claimed that McGrady would have also helped the Lakers win three straight titles.

However, there is a slight difference between the two guards. While the Orlando Magic star was a proficient scorer, he was not as great a defender as Bryant. O’Neal often proclaims that defense wins championships.

Therefore, he could be contradicting himself with this latest statement. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that a prime Tracy McGrady would have helped in other ways, and the Lakers would have brought in defenders to help.

Also Read: