Shaquille O'Neal spent his second-last NBA season playing with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2009-10. As O'Neal put it at the time, he was there to "win a ring for the king."
That didn't happen, and James bolted for the Miami Heat after a second-round playoff loss to the Boston Celtics, with whom O'Neal ended up finishing his career the next season.
With James and the Cavs in the NBA Finals now, O'Neal is in a retrospective mood, telling SiriusXM Bleacher Report Radio on Sunday that James is a great leader who he enjoyed playing with.
"It was the first time I didn't have to do everything," O'Neal told hosts Ethan Skolnick and Howard Beck.
As affable as O'Neal is, he's a little full of it sometimes. While no one can argue the Los Angeles Lakers title teams of 2000 through 2002 were Shaq's first and Kobe Bryant's second, to say he did everything is over the top.
That was especially the case after his trade to the Miami Heat, where the emergence of Dwyane Wade offset the fact O'Neal missed 23 games in Miami's 2005-06 championship season - one where Wade was NBA Finals MVP.
O'Neal chimed in on Wade's current contract situation, agreeing the veteran guard is right to seek a max contract after years of giving the Heat organization hometown discounts.
