Shaq swears his Lakers went out of their way to duck the Jazz in the playoffs.

[Kblaze8855]

. "You notice that we won all those championships & never had to play Utah. When we first got to L.A., Utah was the team that swept us." Said Phil sat him purposely to engineer better matchups.

^
Few days ago.

He said when he first got to tnt that the lakers asked him to sit some game to lose and avoid a first round matchup with the Jazz in 02.

He brings it up now and then for whatever reason. They wanted non of that team. Phil apparently saw something he didn’t like in the matchup even though he wasn’t there when they swept them.

[1987_Lakers]

I heard this the other day as well.

[ArbitraryWater]

I have a hard time believing that in 2002...

the Jazz weren't really a factor and the Lakers weren't that close to playing them / being the #1 seed?

[1987_Lakers]

Shaq has a history of getting facts from the past wrong. Like when he said the Magic had 2 weeks off before they faced the Rockets in the Finals when it was really only a couple of day. Or how he says Nash stole 2 MVPs from him when in reality he was nowhere near the MVP convo in 2006.

It probably wasn't 2002.

[SouBeachTalents]

The 2x defending champion Lakers were "ducking" the 44 win, 8 seeded Jazz with Stockton & Malone in their late 30's? A team they went 8-4 against during the 3peat years? Yeah, I'm not buying that for a second :lol If it is somehow true, it was an irrational fear, considering the Jazz were beating the Lakers several years earlier with a teenage Kobe and no Phil Jackson.

[Phoenix]

The Jazz were no threat to those 2000-2002 Lakers.

[Shogon]

He could be misremembering. He could be lying. Phil could have been playing head games with his own players in order to attempt an optimal outcome overall.

Or he could be totally correct.

Unless Phil comes out and says something, we'll never know.

[MadDog]

Utah would've gave the Lakers some trouble in 2000 (gave Portland a somewhat competitive series). Beyond that, they weren't close to the threat Sacramento was.

[iamgine]

If true I'm guessing Phil was just trying to do something else and gave that as an excuse.

[3ba11]

The 2x defending champion Lakers were "ducking" the 44 win, 8 seeded Jazz with Stockton & Malone in their late 30's? A team they went 8-4 against during the 3peat years? Yeah, I'm not buying that for a second :lol If it is somehow true, it was an irrational fear, considering the Jazz were beating the Lakers several years earlier with a teenage Kobe and no Phil Jackson.


Hmmm... Interesting stuff SouBeach... Unfortunately, you offered very little fact or evidence to support your assertion

Now who should a rational person believe - you or Shaq and Phil

Why would they lie

Who cares about regular season crap - the 95' Rockets were barely .500 and won the title.. the 89' Bulls were 0-6 against the #1 SRS Cavs and still upset them in the playoffs... Or look what Denver did to #1 Seattle in 94'.

So it happens all the time and Phil was correct to avoid the bad matchup

Styles make fights and the Jazz were a bad matchup

[MadDog]

Hmmm... Interesting stuff SouBeach... Unfortunately, you offered very little fact or evidence to support your assertion

Now who should a rational person believe - you or Shaq and Phil

Why would they lie

Who cares about regular season crap - the 95' Rockets were barely .500 and won the title.. the 89' Bulls were 0-6 against the #1 SRS Cavs and still upset them in the playoffs... Or look what Denver did to #1 Seattle in 94'.

So it happens all the time and Phil was correct to avoid the bad matchup

Styles make fights and the Jazz were a bad matchup

Yeah, Malone was still beasting in 2000. He would've taken Shaq outside the paint, and those Laker teams were never great at defending P&R. Sabonis, Webber and KG all feasted.

[warriorfan]

Jordan gets a legacy boost from this.

[MadDog]

Jordan gets a legacy boost from this.

https://c.tenor.com/1CrIm32YQw4AAAAC/jordan-mj-goat.gif

[tpols]

The 2x defending champion Lakers were "ducking" the 44 win, 8 seeded Jazz with Stockton & Malone in their late 30's? A team they went 8-4 against during the 3peat years? Yeah, I'm not buying that for a second :lol If it is somehow true, it was an irrational fear, considering the Jazz were beating the Lakers several years earlier with a teenage Kobe and no Phil Jackson.

The Jazz were a super smart team. They played chess level basketball and had multiple HOFers. Even if the Lakers got passed them they'd be in for a fight. And with how close they were to losing to a stacked Sacramento Kings team that extra battle may have weakened them enough to lose. That's the difficulty of a gauntlet.

[3ba11]

Jordan gets a legacy boost from this.


Shaq remembers the 97' WCF where Kobe airballed 4 times in a row - then he remembers those Finals where Jordan hit the walk-off in Game 1 and beat the same Jazz that were killing the Lakers.. with less help... Shaq was swept with 3 all-star teammates, while MJ won with 1 all-star teammate, so he realizes Jordan's goatness

[1987_Lakers]

Shaq remembers the 97' WCF where Kobe airballed 4 times in a row - then he remembers those Finals where Jordan hit the walk-off in Game 1 and beat the same Jazz that were killing the Lakers.. with less help... Shaq was swept with 3 all-star teammates, while MJ won with 1 all-star teammate, so he realizes Jordan's goatness

“He's got four rings and he becomes the highest scorer in the NBA history. He's the best ever,” - Shaq on LeBron

https://lebronwire.usatoday.com/2021/10/24/shaquille-oneal-says-lebron-james-would-be-the-goat-if-he-becomes-highest-scorer-in-nba-history/

[3ba11]

“He's got four rings and he becomes the highest scorer in the NBA history. He's the best ever,” - Shaq on LeBron

https://lebronwire.usatoday.com/2021/10/24/shaquille-oneal-says-lebron-james-would-be-the-goat-if-he-becomes-highest-scorer-in-nba-history/


We have to differentiate between historical record and opinion - Shaq was recounting historical events when discussing the Lakers avoiding the Jazz, whereas his GOAT take is just opinion, not historical record like his statements about the Jazz

So we can give credence to his statements that recount the historical record, and ignore opinions on GOAT.. Everyone on TV will push the current media narrative that they think drives ratings (manufacture Lebron's resume and force a goat debate)

It's similar to Stan Van Gundy saying his team "wanted Lebron to dribble and get stats" in the 09' ECF - that's the historical record that we can pay attention to (Lebron doesn't command doubles - Lebron's scoring isn't lethal enough to compromise the defense by doubling).

Otoh, his opinions on GOAT are just opinion - no one gives credence to opinion, but we can absolutely take heed of his comments on the historical record (Lebron's scoring not being lethal enough to command doubles)..

[Im so nba'd out]

https://c.tenor.com/1CrIm32YQw4AAAAC/jordan-mj-goat.gif

https://i.postimg.cc/mD98zYqS/38564-E80-60-FF-45-FE-9-F9-B-1-C0-BB647-CD39.jpg

[SouBeachTalents]

The historical record is LeBron is an 8x MVP, 18x All-NBA, soon to be the all time scoring leader in both regular season and playoffs, and a nearly consensus top 2 player of all time.

[Kawhi_Why_Not]

I guess to avoid shaq guarding pick and roll? and phil didn't want jerry sloan getting his revenge. Phil Jackson making Pippen do his dirty work for him like usual i guess. I wonder if Pippen wins a title in 2000 if it's Jazz\Portland in the WCF.

Shaq did get swept by them in 1998. Malone destroyed them with 30 on 59% TS. While Shaq averaged 1.0 assists hahahhaa the triangle seemed to help Shaq a lot with his passing. Kobe was a complete different player in 2000 though so who knows what would of happened.

[MrFonzworth]

He could be misremembering. He could be lying. Phil could have been playing head games with his own players in order to attempt an optimal outcome overall.

Or he could be totally correct.

Unless Phil comes out and says something, we'll never know.

Typed so much and added absolutely nothing to the discussion per usual.

[La Frescobaldi]

66 2002-04-03 30-028 LAL @ NJN L (-2) Did Not Dress
67 2002-04-05 30-030 LAL @ BOS L (-18) Did Not Dress

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/o/onealsh01/gamelog/2002

[Cyrus334]

https://i.postimg.cc/mD98zYqS/38564-E80-60-FF-45-FE-9-F9-B-1-C0-BB647-CD39.jpg
Pull up Lebron's head to head against Duncan and the Spurs.

[Gohan]

The historical record is LeBron is an 8x MVP, 18x All-NBA, soon to be the all time scoring leader in both regular season and playoffs, and a nearly consensus top 2 player of all time.
Lmao at counting final mvps as mvps. Regular season mvps> finals mvps. It takes way longer to get them

[eliteballer]

Shaq bsing like usual.

The Lakers used to slap the Jazz when Phil came.

[90sgoat]

Ostertag was a massive dude and Shaq by his own admission didn't like playing against centers his size.

7'2'' 280lbs, bigger than Joel Embiid.

[3ba11]

Shaq bsing like usual.

The Lakers used to slap the Jazz when Phil came.


It wasn't that simple - the Jazz were already on the downside in 99' after getting beaten by the Blazers.

98' was the Jazz peak - people forget that the 98' Lakers had 4 all-stars and the Jazz beat them like the 14' Finals - ragdoll fashion - this was after their gentlemen's sweep of Popovich/Duncan/Robinson and their 56-win Spurs..

Phil came along and beat the Jazz when they were really old but they took the 98' Bulls to 6 games and required 4 game-winning plays from Jordan to win the 2 Finals..

Those Jazz were so close to beating the Bulls that there's no doubt they would've demolished the 15' Warriors and certainly given Shaq/Kobe a run and possibly beaten them.. there's no way that Curry is tougher opposition than Shaq/Kobe + 2 all-stars like the Lakers had in 98'

[3ba11]

Malone's sidekick only got 10 ppg in the 98 Finals, yet he nearly beat MJ, so Malone destroys the 15' Warriors

Klay/Dray hadn't been all-stars yet heading into the 15' season, so they were a bunch of 1st timers and nowhere near the 97' or 98' Bulls that Malone nearly beat

[dankok8]

The Jazz could definitely exploit Shaq's weak P&R defense... Why that's so hard to believe I don't know. I'm sure they weren't mortified of playing them but trying to avoid them... very plausible! Bad matchups are a real thing in basketball.

[RRR3]

Pull up Lebron's head to head against Duncan and the Spurs.
Duncan is quite a bit better than Isiah Thomas last time I checked.

[kawhileonard2]

^
Few days ago.

He said when he first got to tnt that the lakers asked him to sit some game to lose and avoid a first round matchup with the Jazz in 02.

He brings it up now and then for whatever reason. They wanted non of that team. Phil apparently saw something he didn’t like in the matchup even though he wasn’t there when they swept them.

Always felt that the Jazz was the team to beat them back then seems that was correct.