Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal is the big man with a big-money plan to fix the problem that is the Los Angeles Lakers organization right now.
Rather, Shaq has a plan for what he’d do if he had been in Magic Johnson’s shoes as President of Basketball Operations for the franchise before Johnson quit in April. O’Neal said he’d target the biggest stars available in free agency this offseason, beginning with calling Klay Thompson himself (after the Warriors finish the NBA Finals) and offering to make him the highest-paid Laker ever. Shaq’s second and third options for similar phone calls are Charlotte Hornets guard Kemba Walker and New Orleans big man Anthony Davis.
Here is the transcription of what the big man said ton his PodcastOne show “The Big Podcast with Shaq”: “I’ll be like, ‘Klay, your contract is coming up. KD’s contract is coming up. Lots of guys’ contracts are coming up. They can’t pay you what we can pay you. You will be the highest-paid Laker in Laker history. One, I want you to come play with LeBron, and we want to get this thing cracking again. We want you to come live in LA.’
“So, I’m going to call Klay, myself, ‘I’m going to make you the highest-paid Laker in Laker history. Shaq didn’t make this much, Kobe didn’t make this much, Magic didn’t make this much, LeBron doesn’t make this much. We want to help build a team out here with LeBron. What do you say?’ Because if Klay’s going to win this year, he has four. But guess what? Klay’s not the man, he can come to LA and be the man.”
