By Pierre-Andréa Fraile | Sports journalist
It has now been a few days since Michael Jordan found himself immersed in a controversy which calls into question the legitimacy of his statistics. This did not escape Shaquille O’Neal, who reacted bluntly to it in his podcast.
Arriving in the league in 1992, he has since had the honour of facing His Majesty 21 times, including the playoffs. Shaquille O’Neal can even boast of having won 9 of these duels against Michael Jordan, which after all represents a significant total against such a player. In any case, he therefore seems well placed to speak about it these days, and in particular about the controversy which currently surrounds it.
Indeed, 36 years after his first and only coronation as Defender of the Year, the legendary Bulls guard recently saw the latter return to the news. And not really for the right reasons, since a famous American journalist allowed himself to question his legitimacy, supporting evidence. According to him, MJ’s statistics… would simply have been deliberately distorted to benefit him.
Shaquille O’Neal cashes in on the Michael Jordan controversy
Since the publication of this article against Jordan, many fans have protested. For example, some have unearthed Scottie Pippen’s old edifying words on the subjectwhich only lends credibility to this version of events. Mike’s contemporary, O’Neal also wanted to speak out about the whole affair in his Big Podcast…and was not really surprised by the accusations made:
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Shaquille O’Neal : I knew full well that the stats were inflated at home. I went to John Stockton’s last game and saw him throw the ball to a guy. The guy dribbled the ball 10 times before he made the basket and they still gave Stockton the assist to inflate his record. So are the people at the scorer’s table a little less discriminating at home? Sure.
If he therefore confirms this theory after having been able to attest to it with his own eyes, Diesel nevertheless believes that this in no way deserves general indignation:
Shaquille O’Neal : It does not matter. Do you want to impress me? Make the changes yourself. But if you change Jordan’s stats, you have to change everyone else’s stats.
(John) Havlicek and Pete Maravich who took their shots from behind the 3-point line when it didn’t exist yet: give them an extra point for all those shots they scored from long distance if you’re so keen to do that! Seriously, let it go. None of this can be confirmed.
So don’t count on Shaq to rewatch Jordan’s 1,072 career games and do his apothecary’s sums.
While many fans were shocked by the recent case against Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal didn’t learn anything new. And he doesn’t expect it to tarnish His Airness’ legacy.
2024-07-01 15:50:00
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