The New York Knicks made a huge splash during the off-season by acquiring another Villanova alumni in Mikal Bridges, but all these don’t impress Shaquille O’Neal. After all the transactions, the former league MVP believes that this team is still not a title contender.
New York City is excited about the future after finishing the 2023–24 season with a second-round exit in the NBA Eastern Conference. Some may say that they are just one player away from being title contenders, and Mikal Bridges could be the answer to the franchise’s title drought since 1973.
With the championship aspirations of a basketball-crazed city, former LA Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal feels that getting Bridges during free agency won’t get them over the hump.
“You know what it is? New York is a place that’s built on hype, that controls the hype,” said O’Neal on the ‘Big Pod’. “They can hype everybody else up. They haven’t won sh*t. But ‘Oh New York, New York’…They are nowhere close to winning a championship.”
Aside from signing Bridges, the Knicks also brought back 3&D player OG Anunoby. However, the team missed out on resigning Isaiah Hartenstein, who played a key role in anchoring the big man rotation, while Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson are nursing injuries.
The roster of the New York Knicks is now stacked with former Villanova players who were teammates in the late 2010s, with Jalen Bruson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo reuniting with Bridges.
What matters to Shaquille O’Neal is the number of championships New York Knicks would win
In his NBA career, Shaquille O’Neal’s resume puts him among the top 10 players in league history. With four championship rings from playing for the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat, the seven-foot-one center knows what it takes to reach the league’s pinnacle.
Seeing the Knick’s moves, O’Neal believes this squad will get some good wins in the regular season but doubts their post-season success.
“They’re gonna win some games and do this, but I’m more impressed with — at the end of your career — how many championships you won,” O’Neal said.
Having played in the NBA Eastern Conference, Shaq had his early battles with the Knicks, especially with Patrick Ewing leading the charge. He was able to lead the Orlando Magic to the 1995 NBA Finals but fell short after getting swept by the Houston Rockets.
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