Lakers legend cannot believe Rudy Gobert ended first season of Luka era

It's safe to say that what transpired over the course of the last two weeks was extremely surprising to many fans of the Los Angeles Lakers. Not everyone anticipated the Minnesota Timberwolves to thoroughly dominate LA, but especially not in the manner they did in Game 5, wherein Rudy Gobert put up one of the best outings of his entire professional career.

One of the people most surprised about this development? Lakers legend Shaquille O'Neal. As many are aware, Shaq is one of the four main studio hosts for Inside The NBA on TNT, along with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley. With the game on Wednesday being on their network, Shaq had an opportunity to give an instant reaction to Gobert's monster 27-point, 24-rebound performance, and the end of the Lakers' season.

"I never thought I would say these words that are about to come out of my mouth," Shaq said. "But Rudy Gobert is dominating." Choking on the words as he spoke them, the studio was instantly filled with laughter. Considering how much O'Neal has been a doubter of Gobert in the past, it was certainly an ironic moment.

Shaq admitted that Rudy Gobert dominated in Game 5

Anyone who has followed Inside The NBA for more than a season or two knows all about Shaq's tendencies when evaluating players, and how he can have a bit of a bias against the big men in today's game. He hasn't exactly been a fan of Gobert in the past.

On one hand, I understand watching the players today and seeing how the game has changed, and feeling alienated to it in one way or another. Shaq isn't exactly the personality type that's going to get up on TV and openly speak about how he loves a lot of players unless he perhaps knows them personally.

And for Shaq in particular, there may have been a small part of him hoping to see his former team succeed in this series. But either way, he wasn't afraid to call it like he really saw it here. After struggling to finish layups in the first four games against the Lakers, Gobert dominated here and did enough to even make the former Laker admit, if just for a moment, that what he was doing was very impressive.

We know what we're going to get when we watch Shaq talk basketball, for the most part. Seeing him break character just a little bit felt different.