One of the biggest “What Ifs” in NBA history was recently discussed by Shaquille O’Neal and Dirk Nowitzki. What if Dirk and Shaq joined forces in Dallas? The best we can hope for is an assumption straight from the horse’s mouth, even if there is no logical way to get an answer to that.
During his recent interview on The Big Podcast with Shaq, the Dallas Mavericks legend was asked to list the guys he would have loved to play alongside on a club.
Shaquille O’Neal heaps praise on Dirk Nowitzki
Shaq revealed that he attempted to make that happen after Dirk put his name on that list. Michael Jordan, the 45-year-old’s idol, was the natural choice for a name. He declared,
“You know, I’m the biggest Michael Jordan guy. That was my hero growing up in the 90s. I mean, I would’ve loved to obviously play with him.”
As the player most akin to Michael Jordan in terms of greatness, Dirk added that he would have also delighted to play with the late, great Kobe Bryant. Despite being a 7-foot behemoth himself, the Hall of Famer stated that he would have loved to play beside Mr. Diesel, the most dominant big man in history. He declared,
“I think you would’ve helped me get a lot of looks from the outside.”
Shaq waited for his turn to inform Dirk that he attempted to pull off a trick with Mark Cuban to arrive in Dallas, while grinning to hear his name from one of the all-time greats. He declared,
“Trust me, I tried to get to Dallas many times.”
Shaq said that he was trying to arrange a deal behind the scenes with Cuban before leaving Los Angeles to play for the Mavericks. Nevertheless, a few problems prevented Shaq from being dealt to Dallas. He declared,
“I called Mark to say, Mark, whatever you gotta do to get me there, and he’s like, ‘The Lakers won’t do it, man’, I was like, f***ing make them do it, Mark.”
Though Shaq and Dirk were never able to be teammates, they have always admired one other as rivals.
