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The Los Angeles Lakers' season has gone so terribly wrong that at this point, rumors have already emerged about the team potentially trading away LeBron James. Lakers legend Shaquille O'Neal has weighed in on this hot topic and the Hall of Fame big man had a harsh reality check for his beloved team.
According to Shaq, the Lakers trading away LeBron would be tantamount to this team conceding their chances of winning an NBA title in the foreseeable future. Shaq firmly believes that parting ways with James will only do more harm than good for the Lakers:
“If you trade LeBron, you’ll never win again,” Shaq stated plainly on a recent interview on CNBC. “So make a decision. If you put LeBron around the right guys he's defintiely going to win. So I think whoever put that team together needs to step up and try to fix it.”
It's a plain and simple solution for Shaq: surround LeBron with the right players and he will succeed. That's obviously easier said than done, however.
To be fair, the rumors of LeBron leaving LA all started when he hinted at this same possibility. James said that he's still open to returning to the Cavs somewhere down the road while also stating that's he's willing to join any team that drafts his son, Bronny James, once he becomes eligible. The rumors understandably got out of hand, which prompted LeBron's camp to set up an alignment meeting with the Lakers brass. They appeared to have cleared the air with regard to LeBron's future but quite frankly, this did little to quell the rumors of James potentially walking away from the Lakers in the near future.
For his part, O'Neal also decided to call out LA's front office here by saying that whoever made this mess in the first place should now fix it. Rob Pelinka is this team's general manager and this particular duty falls on him. Then again, you also have to note that LeBron was himself significantly involved in the construction of this current roster so perhaps Shaq is also calling him out here.
