Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard have never had a great relationship. That was the case during the seven seasons that their NBA careers overlapped, and things haven’t improved at all in recent years.
Shaq has continually criticized his fellow former Magic and Lakers center, especially as Howard, 37, has opted to continue his career in the Taiwanese T1 League.
Howard made his debut with the Taoyuan Leopards in November, and opened with a dominant showing, scoring 38 points with 25 rebounds, nine assists and four blocks in a 120–115 win. Shaq wasn’t impressed, though.
“You should never be complimented for being a good father because that’s what you’re supposed to do, right?” he said on The Big Podcast a few days later. “He’s supposed to have 30 points playing against dudes 5’8”.”
Unfortunately for Howard and the Leopards, wins have been hard to come by since that debut. Per Asia-Basket, the Leopards lost their next 10 games after Howard’s debut. The team has won back-to-back games in February to push its record to 3–11 on the season.
Naturally, Shaq is very amused by that fact.
“. . . They have a losing record. . . Somebody sent me that they have a losing record. I ain’t losing to anybody in Taiwan, I’ll tell you that,” he said during his podcast on Thursday. “How do you have a losing record in Taiwan? Come on now.”
Howard sent O’Neal a lengthy message asking him to “stop hating” and being “disrespectful” of the T1 League after Shaq’s November diss while on Instagram Live. After a 3–11 start to the year, it will be interesting to see if Howard sticks up for himself again.
