LeBron James leaving the Los Angeles Lakers and heading to the Philadelphia 76ers re-opened plenty of discourse around the fandom’s support of the surefire Hall of Famer and all-time great. The national conversation has been about whether or not Lakers fans supported James enough during his eight years with the franchise. It was reminiscent of Shaquille O’Neal, another all-timer who left the Lakers franchise after eight seasons as the team moved forward with a younger superstar. So O’Neal felt uniquely able to chime in on the debate, where he took the side of those saying that James wasn’t as well-liked as other Lakers greats. “Well they didn’t love me, they loved Kobe,” O’Neal said in a SiruisXM interview. “They didn’t love me, and listen.
This is what we call B.O.B., the business of basketball. When you’re like me, when I’m in charge, I’m a difficult man to deal with. Everything has to be done my way, and sometimes, people don’t agree with that. So when they get you up out of there, I can kind of understand both sides.”
More on Shaquille O'Neal: Recent HoopsHype Rumors
Shaquille O'Neal says Knicks had 'a lot of luck' winning 2025-26 championship: If you don’t get that tip it’s over… you don’t win that game… If dumb ass De'Aaron Fox don’t f***ing try to score with 8 seconds left… If they don’t let the 29 point lead go. I’m just saying y’all won, but you had a lot of luck — 7/31/2026 YouTube
Shaquille O'Neal on LeBron James: He’s loving the fact that he’s the number one scorer in the league. But guess what? I’mma put this sh*t so far out of reach nobody will ever do it. I ain’t going to lie when I was playing looking at Kareem’s number. I was like, man, 36 thousand, 38. I’ll never get to that. I looked at it the other day. LeBron’s at 45. He still averaging 20. He going to mess around be at 50,000 points. Guess what? Me and you both will probably be dead before somebody passed it up. — 7/29/2026 YouTube
Shaquille O'Neal: "LeBron is a modest arrogant guy, for example. He's loving the fact that he's a number one scorer in the league. But guess what? I'm going to put this sh*t so far out of reach, nobody will ever do it. Like, I ain't going to lie, when I was playing, looking at that Kareem's number, I was like, 'Man, 36K, 38K, I'll never get to that.' I looked at the other day, LeBron's at 45. Still averaging 20, he going to mess around and be at 50,000 points." — 7/29/2026 YouTube
Shaquille O'Neal: "Stephen Curry's legacy is already complete. It's complete. You know why it's complete? Because while everybody was talking about LeBron being No. 1 or No. 2, this little light-skinned kid dominated in LeBron's era, and he beat LeBron." — 7/28/2026 YouTube
Shaquille O'Neal: "Joel Embiid is going to dominate this year. You heard it here first. Joel Embiid will be titled as the best big man in the league. He's passing up the Joker this year. He's going to work this year." — 7/28/2026 YouTube
Shaquille O'Neal: "It's championship or bust for LeBron and Jaylen. I don't want to hear about, 'Oh, 60 games, we made the playoffs.'" — 7/28/2026 YouTube
Shaquille O'Neal: "The person I feel sorry for is Tyrese Maxey. He came in a regular guy, Joel Embiid was hurt most of the year, Tyrese rose up like, 'Hey, I'm the star, this is my team.' Now you bring Jaylen Brown in, is he going to take a step back? And not only that, you bring LeBron in, is he going to take another step back? Now Joel comes in shape and he wants to play, he's going to have to revert back to just being a regular guy, and will that affect him? Because he was starting to make a name for himself. I think he made the All-Star team, he was a star, and sometimes one or two people on the team is going to have to defer. Defer to who? I don't know, whether defer to Jaylen, defer to LeBron, defer to Embiid, I don't know." — 7/28/2026 YouTube
Shaquille O'Neal: "It's funny to me that people that don't have rings are saying, 'Oh, he's a ring chaser.' No, he's continuance chasing. He's chasing to continue to be great, to continue to add legacy to his book. Listen, he doesn't really know he has, but you and I know when this thing is over, it's over. You can't come back. Once you retire, once your body says I can't go no more, it's over. This guy feels he has two, three years left. Why not try to get another championship? I did it. After I won three in a row and then won one in Miami, hey, towards the end of my career, let me go play with Paul and KG and you know, be like the fourth guy and rebound and set picks and you know, see if I can win one. And you know, that's what he's doing." — 7/28/2026 YouTube
Shaquille O'Neal is weighing in on LeBron James’ NBA destiny. The retired athlete — who played eight seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers from 1996 to 2004 — addressed James’ decision to leave the California-based team ahead of his unprecedented 24th NBA season. “Go where you can win, LeBron. When it’s over for us, it’s over,” O’Neal, 54, exclusively told the California Post in a new interview. — 7/23/2026 New York Post
Heat Central: Chris Bosh speaks on making things right with the Heat organization when he got his jersey retired: “It was really on the Heat to do that. Speaking with those in charge, Pat Riley, Nick and Micky, they were so cordial during the process. We had to make amends. There was some battles with me trying to come back and play and all that stuff. Having my name up there in the rafters next to Shaq, D Wade, Hardaway, Haslem, that’s the greatest. Alonzo mourning. I have to stunt on the NBA players. If you think you’ll have a career like mine you gotta go to Miami and look up there. You gotta long way to go. It’s a long way up there… if you’re lucky you get to do what you love. I love basketball… two championships, I couldn’t make it up if I wanted too.” (Via nbataketwo YT) — 7/23/2026 x.com
This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: Shaquille O'Neal on Lakers fans: They didn't love me, they loved Kobe Bryant
