Richard Jefferson believes Shaquille O’Neal would have forced the Golden State Warriors to abandon their small-ball approach if they had faced the Los Angeles Lakers during O’Neal’s prime.
Speaking with former NBA guard Jeff Teague, Jefferson discussed the challenges of playing against the Lakers, who swept his New Jersey Nets in the 2002 NBA Finals.
“They [Lakers] were a problem. They swept us [Nets],” Jefferson said.
Teague then asked whether those Lakers teams were better than the Warriors, who built a dynasty around Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green.
“Do you think they were better than Golden State?” Teague asked.
Jefferson argued that O’Neal’s physical dominance would have presented a major problem for Golden State, particularly when the Warriors used smaller lineups.
“That’s the thing where I think the Shaq factor, and people forget like they talk about the small ball with the Warriors. They had Bogut, David West, you had to carry three bigs on your roster just for Shaq.”
According to Jefferson, Golden State would have struggled to defend O’Neal without committing fouls, making its usual small-ball strategy difficult to maintain.
“There was no small ball because you guys would have just had to foul. You would have had to foul Shaq the whole time. Like Draymond would have had to foul. Andrew would have had to foul.”
Jefferson also used an analogy to describe the size and strength advantage O’Neal would have enjoyed against smaller defenders.
“But if you would have tried to play small ball with Shaq on the floor, it would have been like, you see when you playing in the pool with your kids, right? And they like hanging off and then…”
B Hen interrupted with a humorous response: “It’s been over. I can’t afford it.”
