UPDATE: Dwight Howard says he’s changing nicknames
Even at 38-years-old, Shaq is reluctant to cede the title of most dominant center in the NBA. Prior to Thursday’s Cavs/Magic game, Shaq said there’s really three good centers in the NBA — two were playing in Cleveland (Shaq and Dwight Howard), and the third was injured (Yao Ming). Going back to last year, Shaq and Howard had some beef when Shaq (accurately) accused Dwight Howard of stealing the “Superman” nickname. Later when the their teams met, criticism was heightened when Shaq was accused of flopping. On Thursday night, the game was tied at 96 with five minutes left. While Shaq took an alleyoop pass from LeBron James to give Cleveland the lead for good, Dwight failed to score over the final seven and a half minutes. That prompted some serious comments from Shaq who was upset after the game over being double-teamed. The comments via Brian Windhorst’s twitter:
Shaq on Dwight Howard: “Superman my ass.”
…
Shaq on getting doubled but not doubling Howard: “When I was coming up and there was Ewing and Hakeem, I never doubled anybody. You tell me who the real Superman is. Don’t compare me to anybody. I’d rather not be mentioned. I’m offended. Hakeem, Ewing, Rik Smits, Duncan, Robinson, the best of the best, straight up. I never doubled nobody.”
I guess Shaq wasn’t getting enough attention for a 13-game winning streak so he figured some words were necessary to steal the spotlight. While I’m not fond of Shaq’s ego-feeding ways, especially at the expense of others, there’s no doubt that this was a statement win by the Cavs. Howard ate them up in the Conference Finals last year but now they have a weapon to match him.
