Los Angeles Lakers: Shaquille O’Neal gives his secret to winning four titles
By Jason Reed
Shaquille O’Neal won four NBA Championships in his career, three of which coming with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Shaquille O’Neal is one of the greatest players in the history of the NBA and will always go down as one of the most important players in Los Angeles Lakers history.
Shaq headlined one-half of the last true NBA dynasty, at least the NBA team that won three consecutive championships, alongside all-time great, Kobe Bryant.
The Lakers’ threepeat team is one of the most dominant teams in basketball history and was such an interesting story as well. There was an interesting relationship between Shaq and Kobe that fueled the headlines — those Lakers needed more than just pure talent to win.
Shaquille O’Neal reveals his secret to winning four championships:
Shaq spoke to FanSided’s Mark Carman to help spread awareness for his newly formed “Coalition to Back Black Businesses,” with American Express, which provides a grant program to provide financial support to Black business owners.
In the interview, Shaq credits head coach Phil Jackson for teaching him the championship way. Shaq says that he maybe could have squeezed one title out in his long career, but it was Phil Jackson that taught him the championship way.
Phil helped Shaq grow up from “young Shaq” into someone who was more methodical, allowing Shaq to become more of a creature of habit. The full interview is below:
Can this be important for the 2019-20 Los Angeles Lakers?
Shaq’s comments about Jackson and how he helped him find the championship formula are absolutely applicable to today’s Lakers. While Frank Vogel has nowhere close to the pedigree that Jackson has, the Lakers have the most experienced player in the league who knows the championship formula better than anyone else.
LeBron James.
James essentially serves the same role for the Lakers that Phil did two decades ago, although Phil was not dunking basketballs and dropping 10 assists per night. LeBron has seen it all in the NBA. He has been there, done that and his experience (along with the experience of guys like Danny Green and Rajon Rondo) have better prepared the Lakers.
Just look at the NBA Playoffs thus far. The Milwaukee Bucks were eliminated in round two. The Los Angeles Clippers (despite having Kawhi Leonard and Doc Rivers) very well could be eliminated in round two as well. They might be by the time this article finds you.
LeBron and company have cracked the code the best to bridge that gap from a four-month hiatus to playing basketball at the highest level in the NBA Playoffs.
This bodes well for the future as well. Anthony Davis very well could be the superstar that takes over the Los Angeles Lakers, similar to Kobe taking over the team from Shaq. AD now knows that championship formula for the rest of his career.