Screenshot Courtesy of House of Highlights / YouTube
NBA All-Stars Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal made amends Tuesday night after the G.O.A.T LeBron James broke Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time scoring record during the Los Angeles Lakers game against Oklahoma City Thunder.
Abdul-Jabbar appeared briefly on NBT on TNT to discuss his thoughts on the record-breaking moment. Toward the end of the interview, when co-host Adam Lefkoe thanked Abdul-Jabbar, the six-time NBA champ gestured that he had one more thing to say and directed his attention to Shaq.
“I want to tell Shaq…you felt that I was ashamed of you or ignoring you — that would never be the case,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “You showed them what you were all about, the way you crushed all the centers in the league for a couple of years there. So, I’m on your side, Shaq. Don’t ever let anybody tell you anything different.”
Shaq responded to the NBA legend with a straight face.
“Listen, you not speaking to me was the best thing that happened to my career because all I wanted to do was impress you,” the 15-time All-Star said.
He concluded, “I love you very much, and I will never, ever have beef with the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. You ain’t got to worry about that.”
Shortly after Abdul-Jabbar signed off, Shaq recalled feeling like Abdul-Jabbar didn’t like him because he refused to speak with him at the beginning of his balling career, when the 75-year-old retired from the NBA.
“I’m not a sensitive guy, but he would never look at me, would never talk to me, so I thought he didn’t like me,” Shaq said.
According to Sportskeeda, there have been a couple of times when Abdul-Jabbar had the opportunity to talk with Shaq but never did. In one instance, Shaq did a Reebok commercial with some of the greatest centers in NBA history — Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Abdul-Jabbar. Russell and Chamberlain offered advice to the NBA rookie Abdul-Jabbar reportedly walked off-set without speaking to Shaq.
Shaq said his mother taught him to see if there was truth in the criticism he received, so when Abdul-Jabbar refuted the claim that Shaq was “one of the greatest Lakers ever” because he failed to lead the Lakers to the NBA playoffs. Instead of taking it to heart, Shaq used it to fuel his motivation, and now he’s a Hall of Famer.
Abdul-Jabbar held a shooting record of 38,387, which James beat with a record-breaking score of 38,390.