Steve Kerr is ready to have Shaquille O’Neal pay up on a comment made several years ago.
Shaq’s Los Angeles Lakers won three straight championships from 2000-2002 and made the NBA Finals before losing to the Pistons in 2004. Shaq thought the team’s accomplishment of making four NBA Finals in five years was so impressive that he declared in an interview with ESPN he would kiss a coach’s feet if they were to do the same thing.
Hey @SHAQ, I’m going to do us both a favor and pretend that @D_West30 didn’t send this to me this morning. pic.twitter.com/oFhpTPYjOo
— Steve Kerr (@SteveKerr) July 16, 2019
Shaq’s comments came in 2004 after Phil Jackson left the Lakers and Shaq was traded to the Heat.
“I love that guy to death,” Shaq said of Jackson. “And yes we have arguments and quarrels, but I love that guy to death. I stand up for that guy. I believe in what he believes. Phil Jackson took us to the Finals four of five years. And the next five years if a coach takes the team to the Finals four of five years, I’ll kiss his feet on ‘Fear Factor’ with cheese on it. I will. It will never be done again.”
Despite Shaq’s proclamation, Erik Spoelstra led the Miami Heat to four straight Finals from 2011-2014. Steve Kerr just did it with the Warriors from 2015-2019, making it to five straight NBA Finals.
“Hey @SHAQ, I’m going to do us both a favor and pretend that @D_West30 didn’t send this to me this morning,” Kerr tweeted.
Is Kerr angling to have Shaq pay off the word by kissing his feet? What about Spoelstra? If Shaq is a man of his word, he really needs to make this happen. Or make a new bet where someone would have to kiss his feet, which would really be punishment.
