A lot of Los Angeles Lakers fans are reminiscing these days. With the brutal season the team has been having, many are yearning for the glory days of the early 2000's.
They aren't the only ones doing it though, as Shaquille O'Neal himself recently took the time to reflect on his time with the Lakers.
On the road to his first championship, @SHAQ had one of the most iconic plays in his career…the alley-oop dunk to seal Game 7 of the 2000 WCF. @RoParrish sits down with Shaq to revisit that play in this episode of Storytime with Shaq. pic.twitter.com/xfybU1XPKu
— NBA TV (@NBATV) March 27, 2019
In an interview with Ro Parrish, Shaquille O'Neal talked about the Lakers' 2000 season, his first year winning a championship. They talked about Los Angeles' run, and O'Neal revealed his favorite moment from the title chase.
The Lakers were playing a Portland Trail Blazers team featuring Scottie Pippen and Rasheed Wallace in the Western Conference Finals. In Game 7 of that series, the Lakers fell down big early on. But O'Neal describes how the team never panicked and ended up storming back.
However, for Shaq, his favorite playoff moment is not the famous alley-oop thrown by Kobe Bryant. According to the Big Diesel, the best moment is when Kobe jumped on him and hugged him, pointing out that it shows their brotherhood despite talks about the difficulty of two alphas co-existing.
The whole interview is worth a watch, as O'Neal talks candidly about a number of topics. He had some very interesting comments about Phil Jackson's coaching style, and how he would motivate players during timeouts.
According to O'Neal, at one break in the fourth quarter, Jackson told him “see you next summer”, a reference to the apparent loss they were about to take. He also talked about lesser-heralded teammates like Brian Shaw and the critical roles that they played. Right about now, Laker fans would give just about anything to go back to those days.
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