“If Superteams Were Acceptable, I Would've Joined Michael Jordan In Chicago" - Shaquille O'Neal

NBA
Wednesday, 28 February 2024 at 16:00
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Former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal has stated that if it was up to him, he would’ve switched his team to play alongside legendary Michael Jordan at the Chicago Bulls.
The 51-year-old remains one of the most successful players in the history of the NBA, having won as many as four championships during his illustrious career.
O'Neal was recently quoted in a report where he stated that if it was allowed to have a super team during his time, he would’ve definitely switched and played alongside Jordan.
"If we knew that was acceptable, probably a lot of us would have switched up," said O'Neal. "If I knew that was acceptable I would have just went to Chicago. If I knew that was acceptable, I would have went and played with the Spurs. If I knew that was okay I would have went and played with a team that was almost there, like Utah."
The New Jersey-born, who played for four different franchises in his career and was the league’s Most Valuable Player in 2000, further went on to talk about how the culture has changed in the NBA where before, players were focused on staying and finding a way to win rather than moving to another team to get more success.
"We always thought like, 'No, you're the man. You the guy. You gotta get it done. You gotta say, you gotta make trades, you got to do this. You can't (leave)',” he said. “And I think he (Kevin Durant) did it before it was acceptable.
"It's acceptable now, people just 'I want to go here, I want to do this. Oh hey, you play on this team, you play on this team, let's get on this team and create a Big Three. But again, if I knew that was acceptable, I just would have went and played with Mike."