Shaquille O’Neal isn’t putting LeBron James in the same Los Angeles Lakers tier as the franchise’s biggest champions.
In an interview last week with For The Win’s Prince J. Grimes, the Hall of Famer made his view pretty clear: James belongs in the conversation, but not near the top of it.
“The good thing for LeBron: He did win one. He did win one.
But Kareem got six. Magic got five.
Kobe got five. I got four,” O’Neal said.
Then came the line that summed up his stance: “So he's at the party, but he's not on stage.”
James won one championship in eight seasons with the Lakers, capturing the 2020 title for the fourth ring of his career. That tied him with O’Neal overall, though LeBron’s title in Los Angeles came with the third different team he had won a championship with.
O’Neal also pushed back on the idea that James is a “ring chaser,” despite the 41-year-old’s stunning move to the Philadelphia 76ers in July. James is set to join former MVP Joel Embiid, former Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, and one of the league’s most dangerous offensive backcourts in Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe, even though the franchise has gotten past the second round just once this millennium.
“The man is not chasing rings,” O’Neal said of James. “The man has already gotten rings the right way.
And toward the end of your career, if you can join up and help somebody else get a ring, and continue to get rings, I call it 'ring continuancy.' Not ring chasing.
"Ring chasing will be like, 'I don't have a ring. ... Now I'm going to get with a super team to win a ring.' ...
LeBron played the right way. Put the team together in Miami, a lot of people didn't like that but it worked.
Went back to Cleveland, got one. Got one in L.A.”
O’Neal’s own Lakers legacy is tied to the three-peat he formed with Kobe Bryant from 1999-2002, when he won his first three NBA titles in Los Angeles. His fourth and final championship came in 2006 with Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat.
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