Shaquille O’Neal is undoubtedly one of the best players to ever grace the hardwood in the NBA.
While O’Neal was a dominant force of nature from the beginning of his career with the Orlando Magic, he truly hit his stride as the most dominant player in the league during his stint with the Los Angeles Lakers.
O’Neal helped the Lakers win three NBA Championships and after his time with the team, he joined the Miami Heat.
O’Neal wasn’t as dominant with the Heat as he was during his time with the Lakers, but he still helped the team in winning one NBA title.
Keeping that in mind, it’s no surprise that O’Neal’s jersey was retired by each franchise.
However, O’Neal’s jersey was recently retired by the Magic, and it didn’t sit well with Chris Russo, as revealed via “First Take” on Twitter.
“He went to the Lakers and the Magic fell apart for eons,” Russo said.
.@MadDogUnleashed had some thoughts on the Magic retiring Shaq's jersey 👀 pic.twitter.com/PnImP4CGvS
— First Take (@FirstTake) February 14, 2024
Russo dissected O’Neal’s career by pointing out that he was swept by the Chicago Bulls, destroyed by Hakeem Olajuwon’s Houston Rockets, and left the team to join the Lakers.
Russo believes keeping that in mind, O’Neal didn’t deserve his jersey getting retired by the organization.
But at the end of the day, O’Neal is arguably the best player to ever play for the Magic.
It’s evident from the fact that he became the first player in the history of the Magic to get his jersey retired.
An interesting side note is that O’Neal also became only the third player in NBA history to get his jersey retired by three different NBA franchises.
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