NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal has made his stance on LeBron James' place among Los Angeles Lakers greats pretty clear, and it isn't the endorsement James might have hoped for.

To Shaq, LeBron is absolutely a Lakers great. But he is not at the very top of the list. That line, Shaq says, is reserved for the players who won the most and changed the franchise the most.

"The good thing for LeBron, he did win one," Shaq told USA TODAY Sports on August 5.

After James’ decision to close his eight-year tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers and sign with the Philadelphia 76ers, O'Neal used a party analogy to explain the difference. And then he started counting the rings of the other Lakers greats.

"Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) got six, Magic (Johnson) got five, Kobe (Bryant) got five, I got four, (Kurt) Rambis got three. So you know, he's at the party, but he's not on stage," he added as per USA Today Sports.

This doesn't mean LeBron James was a failure in L.A., not at all. It just means his time there was a mixed bag of incredible highs and frustrating near-misses.

The highest high came in 2020. He led them to the 2020 NBA title in his second season inside the Disney bubble and won Finals MVP.

He later passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA's all-time leading scorer during a 2023 game against Oklahoma City at Crypto.com Arena.

But after that, the deep playoff runs did not keep coming.

 The Lakers were swept out of the 2023 Western Conference Finals. The next two years, they were knocked out in the very first round of the playoffs. In his final season with the team, they lost in the second round to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

This isn't the first time O'Neal has drawn a line between 'Lakers great' and 'top-tier Lakers great' when talking about James.

In an earlier conversation with Fox News Digital after James' departure, he said LeBron James did enough to be 'in the building' as a Lakers great, but not on the 'top floor.'

He put Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant above him, and placed himself in the next tier.

O’Neal joined the Lakers in 1996 and helped them win three straight titles from 2000 to 2002. He won Finals MVP all three times, and took home the regular-season MVP in 2000.

He stayed with the Lakers through 2004 before moving on to Miami, where he won a fourth ring in 2006.

But Shaq thinks the Lakers will miss LeBron more than they think

In his view, LeBron was the offense’s main organizer. He controlled the ball, made the first read, and helped set up easy looks for teammates.

That is why Shaq believes the Lakers will miss his leadership and his calm so much.

"LeBron was the ultimate ball controller," O'Neal said during an exclusive interview with TODAY. "He always made the right play, but he had to have the ball in his hands most of the time to hit Luka or hit Austin Reaves."

Even at 41, James has averaged 20.9 points, 7.2 assists and 6.1 rebounds across 60 games in his final Lakers season.

James was still a load-bearing part of the Lakers' offense in his final year. That responsibility now shifts elsewhere.

Read more at the Air Jordan Chronicles!

Written by

Md Saife Fida

Edited by

Zaid Quraishi