Shaquille O’Neal says Kareem Abdul-Jabbar never helped him at the Los Angeles Lakers – NBA Update
NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal has a new book coming out soon and it has already started making news.
A look at the excerpts from the book reveals that O’Neal wasn’t happy with Los Angeles Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. O’Neal, who went on to become part of Lakers folklore himself, wrote in the book that he would have liked
to get more assistance from Abdul-Jabbar than was afforded to him.
O’Neal started his career with the Orlando Magic, but after some years jumped ship to join the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers are one of the most successful franchises in NBA history and have a famed lineage of great centres, such
as Kareem and Wilt Chamberlain.
O’Neal became the heir to those great centres and did an admirable job of filling their giant shoes. He did though struggle a little with the expectations put upon him early on, and revealed in the book that he would have liked
to receive some guidance from Kareem. That though, according to O’Neal, wasn’t forthcoming.
"Kareem was never around. And, whenever I did see him, he usually ignored me. The disappointing thing to me was, being in L.A. all those years and trying to fill those shoes, I would have liked to have a conversation with him ...”
O’Neal goes on to state in the book that it wasn’t like the two were on bad terms or didn’t like each other. Abdul-Jabbar is one of the greatest players to ever set foot on an NBA court and his accomplishments are enormous. Shaq
has respect from the great man and met with him often, he just didn’t get the kind of response he was looking for.
And that left the Diesel a bit bitter.
"He'd say hello, but I was looking for, 'Hey, do this' or 'Watch out for that.' He knew everyone was comparing me to him. He knew better than anyone what I was up against, but he gave me nothing."
It isn’t like Shaquille struggled without help from Kareem. The centre went on to become one of the most dominant players ever in the NBA. In his prime, he was simply unstoppable and powered the Lakers to 3 consecutive NBA World
Championships.
After two unsuccessful seasons he went to the Miami Heat where he won another NBA world Championship with Dwyane Wade by his side. His glorious 18 year career came to an end at the Boston Celtics last season.
Still O’Neal perhaps feels he could have been even more affected if he had added Kareem’s trademark finesse to his imposing power. As fate would have it though, Shaq will now go down ‘only’ as one of the best centres of all time.
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