Dwight Howard finally responds to O’Neal, tells him to move on – NBA News
It seems like Dwight Howard has had enough of Shaquille O’Neal calling him out, and finally spoke his mind on Thursday after practicing with the Los Angeles Lakers. Howard, one of the most dominant centres in the league, has never had a good relationship
with O’Neal, the former Lakers centre and one of the most dominant to play that position ever. And after O’Neal said in a TNT round table discussion that Andrew Bynum and Brook Lopez were better centres, Howard said it was time for O’Neal to move on.
“I don't care what Shaq says. Shaq played the game. He's done. He's gone. It's time to move on,” said Howard after practice with his new team.
The comments were made by Shaq in a TNT show that included a round table discussion between TNT analysts last week, where Shaq stated that he was an old school type of person and did not like’s Howard inclination towards the pick and roll.
“What we have now are centers that are going to the European style, which is a lot of pick-and-roll. Dwight Howard, who's a pick-and-roll player, some people say he's the best center in the league, but me being an old-school center, I'm going to go with
Robin Lopez and Andrew Bynum because they play with their back to the basket,” said O’Neal later correcting himself and saying that he meant to say Brook Lopez and not his brother Robin.
Howard did not like O’Neal’s comments and after practicing without any limitations for a third day with the Lakers as he recovers from back surgery, said that Shaq was doing the same thing he himself disagreed with as a player.
"He hated the fact when he played that the older guys were talking about him and how he played and now he's doing the exact same thing,” said Howard.
When Howard was rumoured to be involved in negotiations with the Lakers for a trade, one of the reasons why he was initially reluctant to join them was because he thought people would see him as trying to copy Shaq’s footsteps, who also went from the Orlando
Magic to the Los Angeles Lakers and then won three NBA titles with them.
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