Shaquille O’Neal believes Kyrie Irving should do as he says and did.
The NBA legend and TNT basketball analyst advised the Boston Celtics point guard on how to boost his team’s fortunes Tuesday night during the “Inside the NBA” broadcast. O’Neal believes Irving should mimic sacrifices he made at various points in his career, in which he lowered his personal offensive demands in order to allow his younger teammates to flourish.
“When you’re the man, a lot of responsibility comes with that, and the main responsibility is your team has to play well,” O’Neal said prior to the Celtics’ blowout win over the Golden State Warriors, per Boston.com’s Jon Couture. “… Right now, since the All-Star break, they’re not playing well, and I’m going to go on record and say it’s his fault. Because when we’re the superstars and the team don’t play well, it’s always our fault. It’s our job to get it fixed.
“It’s a simple fix. We’re all superstars up here and we all did one thing to make us great and make our teams, our players great. Sacrifice. Sometimes, Kyrie does a little too much.”
“As a superstar, the best decision I ever made in my life was to let my young dogs play,” O’Neal continued. “When I first came in, it was all about me. I wanted to do it by myself. There was a kid named Penny Hardaway (in Orlando). I let him play. We both went to work. Then when I got to L.A., I left Orlando and I wanted to do the same thing … as soon as I said, ‘You know what? Kobe (Bryant), play with me,’ best decision I made.”
O’Neal meshed with superstar teammates Hardaway and Bryant at some times and clashed with them at others. Nevertheless, O’Neal is a four-time NBA champion and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016, so his insight has value.
Irving has come under fire for much of the last month, as the Celtics have struggled amid chemistry and other issues.
However, those problems weren’t on display later Tuesday night in the Celtics’ 128-95 win over the Warriors.
While Irving probably was too busy preparing to face the Warriors to hear or heed O’Neal’s pregame advice, he still went out and allowed teammates like Gordon Hayward to shine alongside him in one of their biggest wins of the season.
