What’s it going to take to get Shaquille O’Neal to jump out of his seat when it comes to what Luka Doncic is doing during the 2020 playoffs?
I think the answer is win a ring, perhaps, since we know how important that is to Shaq when it comes to evaluating player careers.
But seriously! After what Doncic did on Sunday, we should all be in awe of what the 21-year-old second-year stud can do in the highest of high pressure situations.
Yet … O’Neal didn’t seem that in awe at all on Inside the NBA. He asked for everyone to “calm it down a notch” and said he had seen that before. Then, he asked if Doncic is the “top guard” in the league, leaving his fellow panelists mostly speechless.
I do get what O’Neal is trying to say, that we’ve seen these kinds of heroics and shooting before in Damian Lillard, Steph Curry and others.
But this is something way more special. We’re talking about a young player taking over a game as if he was a seasoned pro and completely dominating every aspect of it, PLUS carrying a team down its second-best player in a must-win postseason matchup against a defending champ in Kawhi Leonard. That deserves more than a “I’ve seen that before.”
