NBA: Shaq: LeBron should not hunt rings

Center legend Shaquille O’Neal has advised LeBron James not to make chasing championships a top priority. Shaq once made the mistake himself, although he had already achieved everything.

“My problem at the end of my career was that I wanted to prove something to everyone and to win more championships,” O’Neal said in an interview with ESPN. “After my first three titles, people said,’You won’t win a fourth’. After my fourth one in Miami, they said,’You won’t win a fifth’. So I tried to win a ring in Phoenix, Cleveland or Boston.”

This, however, had been a mistake in the review. “Someone once told me:’Your book was already written after the four championships. You might have added a few index pages, but your story was already told.'” The same is now the case with LeBron James, Shaq explained. “His book is already written. He’s overtaken so many legends, broken so many records. He has three rings.”

The 46-year-old now suspected LeBron’s mentality was to win a fourth ring before Stephen Curry got his fourth. “But if I were him, I wouldn’t bet everything on getting those rings. It makes no difference. Only the other people talk about it and compare. But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s a legend – I mean, we’re talking about whether he or Michael Jordan is the best player ever.”