Dwight Howard and Shaquille O’Neal are connected in multiple ways aside from the fact that they both started their careers with the Orlando Magic.
First is them being part of the Los Angeles Lakers and winning a combined four championships with the legendary franchise. Third is both of them being called Superman.
The most interesting thing about the two of them is their beef that spanned almost Howard’s whole career.
It is well documented how Shaq hates Howard who started his career with the Magic in 2004 and established himself among if not the best big man in that span. O’Neal already won three titles in the year of the aughts.
Shaq called him soft and not deserving of the Superman tag. In 2024, Howard challenged to fight in a charity boxing match but O’Neal declined.
Gotta have more than one ring to get in the ring with me, I’ll stick with a real champion like @RobGronkowski, and you can have the Superman belt, all yours buddy,
— SHAQ (@SHAQ) November 18, 2024
By 2025, O’Neal said that he was only hard on the eight-time All-Star because he was pushing him to reach a new level.
“Me and Dwight finally met up the other day, and he asked me, ‘How come you don’t like me?’ And my response was, ‘What makes you think I don’t like you?’ He said, ‘Cause you’re always hard on me.’ You don’t think I was hard on Kobe? You don’t think I was hard on D-Wade? You don’t think I’m hard on Jeremy and Shane? This is what I do to get my guys to go to that next level,” the Most Dominant Ever shared in his podcast.
It’s all settled now as Howard even invited him for his Hall of Fame ceremony and have him alongside Kevin Garnett Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to walk him out in the event. Shaq accepted the invitation.
Dwight Howard said the beef was real but it’s all good now
Howard said the conflict they had was never for the show.
“I don’t think none of it was for cameras. I’m not in the business of trying to do anything for show,” Howard said an interview with ScoopB.com.
“The beef? I mean, I guess it was real as far as him disliking what I was doing and me disliking him hating on me or whatever you want to call it.”
However, it has to be buried now that they are both retired and found themselves in the same league – the Hall of Fame. He also thankful because they got to talk things out.
Credit: Getty Images
“My time in the NBA is over with, you know? We got the same jacket. We’re in the Hall of Fame so, we just have to respect each other, you know?” he said.
“Shaq came before me and a lot of the bigs, so we always pay homage to the ones that came before us and would never disrespect him and what he meant to the game and what he’s done for the game. Away from basketball off the court, you know, man-to-man is different from on the court, and all in all, I respect him, and I’m glad we had an opportunity to talk.”
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