Getty Shaquille O'Neal
The Boston Celtics have both the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and have homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. Despite that, Shaquille O’Neal has his doubts about their chances.
O’Neal explained why he considers the Celtics as overrated.
Shaq says the Celtics are the most overrated team in the NBA 😬
“Overrated? Boston,” O’Neal said on “The Big Podcast” in a clip aggregated by NBACentral’s X account. “You’ve gotta show me. I’ve been around this league a long time, and seen a lot of guys that have had a great regular season and haven’t won championships…Consistency and dominant consistency. You’ve gotta do more. Every game, you’ve gotta go to another level.”
The Celtics have annually been one of the league’s best teams for the last few years, but much like O’Neal alludes to, they haven’t gotten over the hump. They have had plenty of playoff success since drafting Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown but have only been to the NBA Finals once since 2010.
O’Neal played his last NBA season with the Celtics when he played one year for them during the 2010-11 season.
Nate Robinson Doubts the Celtics’ Chances as Well
O’Neal isn’t the only one who doesn’t believe the Celtics have what it takes. Robinson also believes the Celtics don’t have a particular ingredient that will prevent them from winning.
“It’s difficult because you want to say Boston out of the East, but they can never get it done,” Robinson said on the April 9 episode of “The OGs.” “I just have no faith in them. The ‘it’ factor— whatever that is, they don’t have it. I don’t know exactly what they’re missing. They don’t have that dog. They have none of it.”
Robinson played for the Celtics from 2010 to 2011. He played the second half of the 2009-10 season and the first half of the 2010-11 season for Boston. Originally acquired from the New York Knicks, Boston traded him to the Oklahoma City Thunder when they acquired Jeff Green.
The truth is that the Celtics have plenty of success to their name, but they will have doubts until they win a title.
Kobe Bryant Was Why Shaquille O’Neal Joined Celtics
As previously mentioned, O’Neal once played for the Celtics. In fact, he even started 36 of the 37 games he played for Boston. But why did he pick Boston in the first place?
According to O’Neal himself, ex-teammate Kobe Bryant was the reason he decided to go to Boston. O’Neal admitted as such on the February 12 episode of “The Big Podcast with Shaq.”
“We had the same arguments,” O’Neal said. “‘You can win, but you cannot with without Shaq.’ ‘You can win, but you cannot with without Kobe.’ The fact that he has two (without O’Neal) and I have one (without Bryant), I f****** went crazy in my house… I admit, in my last three years, I was traded to championship chances because if I can get five, he got five. But the fact that he got five and I got four drives me crazy.”
O’Neal and Bryant had a tumultuous relationship when they played together for the Los Angeles Lakers. However, they still managed to win three titles and made four NBA Finals together.