Shaquille O’Neal is the harshest on his own team. He won his first three championships suiting up in Purple and Gold but shares credit with his teammates for making it happen. He claims to see a strong absence of that in the Los Angeles Lakers squad currently. While on Stephen A. Smith’s show, both brought up the same criticism dogging the franchise currently and that is their relentless dependence on LeBron James and Anthony Davis. “The pressure is on LeBron and AD. But as a professional player, if a guy’s leaving you wide open, you have to step up,” O’Neal said referencing the other Lakers players.

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Shaq proceeded to call out James and Davis’ teammates to make them step up. “You got AD playing fabulous – I’m on AD’s case all the time  – you know LeBron playing but [Austin] Reaves gotta play spectacular, D’Angelo [Russell] gotta play spectacular, uh Rui Hachimura gotta play spectacular, and they have to take advantage of you playing with two of the greatest players ever. You have room to operate, so if you got room to operate, be aggressive and operate.”

He referred to his own Lakers teammates, Derek Fisher and Rick Fox. He said both champions, “used to be p***ed off if they missed open shots they knew they had to knock those down.” O’Neal’s impassioned plea to his former team also found rare agreement from the ESPN veteran.

Shaquille O’Neal and Stephen A. Smith’s sunny tactics

Stephen A. and his nemesis, ‘Tex Johnson’ don’t usually see eye-to-eye. But when it came to the Lakers, they agreed on a unique proposition to boost their team spirit.

Smith recommended taking all the Lakers, except King James and The Brow, on a tour of LA. “Make sure the sun is shining that’s about 80° outside,” he said before getting to the punchline.

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“I say ‘You want to be here? You want to go somewhere else or you want to be here? Because if you want to be here, you going to need to produce.’ I think you throw that in their face and use the California sunshine and the lifestyle- threaten to take it away from them.”

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He asked Shaq what he thought about the strategy and the 2000 NBA MVP wholeheartedly agreed with the sentiment. “I love that strategy and they realize you have to take pride of where you are,” O’Neal reiterated. What do you think about this sunshine strategy?