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Shaquille O’Neal, Who Disliked Jayson Tatum’s 4 Word Message to Kobe Bryant, Doubles Down on Him Through New Line of Criticism

Published 06/28/2022, 8:00 PM EDT

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The 2022 NBA Finals finished over two weeks ago, but the discussions surrounding it continue to happen. The Boston Celtics took on the Golden State Warriors in the finals. Boston took an early two games to-one lead and for a moment, it looked like they could run away with this. But Golden State then roared back and won three in a row to close out the series and win the title.

This was Golden State’s fourth title in eight years. This was Boston’s first NBA Finals since 2010. They had a young team led by wing duo Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. For the Celtics, Tatum even won the first-ever Larry Bird Eastern Conference Finals MVP in these playoffs. But his performances in the NBA Finals left a lot to be desired and one NBA legend was not happy about it.

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NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal on his podcast “The Big Podcast with Shaq,” recently discussed Tatum‘s NBA Finals performance. Earlier Shaq also wasn’t a fan of Tatum’s four-word message to Kobe “I got you today,” and said, “I would never.”

Shaq in his podcast said, “So if you wanna be anointed the man and this is your team. This is the stuff that you have to go through. I went through it, Kobe went through it, Durant is going through it, everybody has to go through it.”

Shaq further said, “When he learns to step up and Brown both have to learn to step up as a duo together and put up killer numbers. We won’t be having these silly conversations. Marcus Smart is a good enough point guard.”

Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant – The most dynamic duo ever

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Shaq and Kobe were together for eight years in Los Angeles. During this time, they were one of the most dominant duos ever. Shaq joined the Lakers in 1996. The Lakers traded for Kobe on a draft-day trade.

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The first few years for the duo, they struggled in the postseason, but it all changed with the arrival of legendary coach Phil Jackson.

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After Jackson’s arrival, they went to four NBA Finals and won three straight NBA Championships. For his efforts, Shaq won three NBA Finals MVPs. Let us know in the comments below your favorite Shaq and Kobe memory.

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Written by:

Nirjhar Sharma

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Nirjhar Sharma is an NBA writer at EssentiallySports. He is a sports enthusiast who follows all major sports and has been watching the NBA for the past 7 years now. A firm believer in the 'Greek Freak' being the best player in the league right now, he believes that the Bucks are primed for another championship run unless the injury bug bites them.
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Edited by:

Arunaditya Aima