LeBron James has had a legendary career filled with heavenly highs but also cataclysmic lows. His career has now taken a turn for the latter as more and more questions are piling about him. The Los Angeles Lakers had a dismal regular season where they failed to qualify for the playoffs despite having a star-studded team. Critics have put a large share of blame on James for the Lakers’ season.

Legendary Lakers player Shaquille O’Neal even said that while other players respect LeBron, they don’t fear him. Now, former NFL player Shannon Sharpe has defended James from Shaq’s criticism. Shannon, who hosts Skip and Shannon: Undisputed along with sports columnist and commentator Skip Bayless thinks that this is not true at all.

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He says, ” How does a guy go to 10 finals in near two decades and nobody fears him. They dubbed it LeBronto… In 2007, LeBron James took the Cleveland Cavaliers, a very under-manned Cleveland Cavaliers, and beat the Detroit Pistons and ended their run.”

“Hey, Shaq! Here’s some info for you: that Detroit Pistons beat you in the Finals at the end of your run. Guess what happened in the summer of 2007? The Boston Celtics went in and traded for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. So why did they make that move? If they did not fear him, they wouldn’t have made that move.”

He added,?“I’m upset but this notion that no one fears LeBron ain’t true. Ain’t nobody putting teams together to beat Milwaukee. Golden State went in and put together a team to beat the Cavaliers, that’s why they got Kevin Durant. That’s why KG and Ray Allen teamed up with Paul Pierce: for LeBron. But no one feared LeBron? C’mon Shaq.”

Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James

Shaq and LeBron have been teammates before at Cleveland. He wanted to win a “ring for the King” referring to James who was the leader of the team. They went to the Conference Semifinals but got eliminated by the Celtics. Shaq was traded to Boston after that season. LeBron left the Cavaliers to sign a deal with the Miami Heat.

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James has been criticized a lot for this season. There has been speculation that this Lakers team has been mostly built by him and hence deserves a large share of criticism. His individual performance has still been great with him averaging more than 30 PPG this season.

Will James get his 5th ring? Will he be able to silence his critics? Only time and LeBron’s motivations can tell this story, at the end of the day.