Larry Bird proclaimed a young Shaquille O’Neal to be the best player in the world when he was still playing, and this occurred two years before Shaquille O’Neal was taken in the NBA Draft.
This may sound unusual, but it’s true. Shaq was an up-and-coming phenomenon at LSU back in the day. Larry Bird’s predictions proved to be right not too long after they were made.
As the 1990s began, it became abundantly clear that the National Basketball Association (NBA) was the proud keeper of a great athlete in the person of Michael Jordan. During this point in time, legendary figures like Magic and Isiah were still competing at the highest level. When Reggie Miller asked Larry Bird a few questions about himself on the Reggie Miller Show, he did so with the expectation of receiving the usual responses.
Yet, when Bird made an astonishing accusation, it caught him completely off guard. Larry Bird asserted that there was a young man at LSU who was completely unique in comparison to everyone else he had ever met. The adolescent in question was Shaq, and Bird made a proclamation that he would be the next big thing in the near future.
The show was stopped by the assertion that Shaquille O’Neal was the best player on the court at the moment. Remember that Shaq didn’t get drafted until two more years had passed. It took guts to regard him as an all-time great, despite the fact that he was already a rising celebrity when he was a teenager.
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Larry Bird Asserted That There Was a Young Man at LSU Who Was Completely Unique in Comparison
After thirty years, the assertion that Shaq is one of the greatest players of all time has become a cliche. The outcome is not a secret to any of us. The moment Shaq entered the National Basketball Association (NBA), he immediately established himself as an unstoppable force, just as Larry Bird had said he would be.
At the time of his retirement, The Big Diesel had a resume that very few people in the annals of history could match. The amount of dominance that Shaq demonstrated during his career is not something that happens very often. Naturally, basketball fans sometimes speculate about what Shaq could have accomplished if he had the same work ethic as Kobe or Jordan.
Many believe that Shaquille O’Neal would have been able to reach even greater heights. Even though he didn’t have a particularly strong work ethic, Shaq was still able to accomplish a lot of remarkable things in his life.
In the end, Larry Bird was absolutely correct. The student at LSU who was only 18 years old would go on to become the next major celebrity.
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