O’Neal thinks his 2000-01 Lakers will beat Warriors with ease
Shaquille O’Neal thinks his Los Angeles Lakers teams could beat the Golden State Warriors.
The Hall of Fame center won three titles with Los Angeles from 1996-04.
He compared those squads to two-time defending champions the Warriors in an interview with USA Today on Wednesday.
“I think we’d easily win,” O’Neal said. “Other people might feel different, they [the Warriors] might feel different. But we had one of the best teams of all time in 2001 when we went 15-1 in the playoffs. We would’ve gone 16-0 but A.I. [Hall of Famer Allen Iverson] went off on us.”
That 2000-01 Lakers team registered a 56-26 record. They swept through the first three rounds of the playoffs before topping Iverson’s 76ers in five games.
Los Angeles captured three straight championships from 1999-02. They registered a combined 181-65 regular-season record during that time frame.
The Warriors have taken home three of the last four titles and lead the Western Conference with a 19-9 record.
O’Neal finished his 19-year career averaging 23.7 points and 10.9 rebounds. He made 15 All-Star teams and won a fourth championship with the Heat in 2005-06.
