In light of more celebrities and non-boxers taking to a boxing ring, Dwight Howard challenged Shaquille O’Neal to a match on November 16. On the November 19 episode of “Inside the NBA” on TNT, O’Neal responded to the challenge.
“I only fight people in the top 75,” Shaq said, citing the fact that Howard did not make the NBA’s 75th anniversary team in 2021.
O’Neal’s broadcast colleagues, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith, argued that Howard should have made the NBA’s list of top 75 players.
“I think he should have been in there,” Barkley said. “And first of all, he’ll whoop your [expletive].”
In response, O’Neal said he would rather fight Patriots legend Rob Gronkowski as “Gronk” had a more accomplished resume in his NFL career.
Howard originally posed the challenge via X.
In response, O’Neal downplayed Howard’s career accomplishments, citing the fact that he only won one championship with the Lakers in 2020.
“Gotta have more than one ring to get in the ring with me, I’ll stick with a real champion like @RobGronkowski , and you can have the Superman belt, all yours buddy,” Shaq wrote.
The two NBA legends proceeded to have an entertaining back-and-forth over the subject. Howard also revealed that O’Neal blocked him on X.
Shaq’s Disdain For Howard Dates Back Years
It doesn’t come as a surprise that O’Neal shot down Howard’s request. The 2000 NBA MVP became an ardent critic of Howard after the latter anointed himself as “Superman” during the 2008 Dunk Contest at All-Star weekend.
In his 2011 autobiography titled “Shaq Uncut: My Story,” O’Neal revealed he took serious offense to Howard stealing the moniker of “Superman” from him.
“The whole Superman thing doesn’t work for me,” Shaq wrote in reference to Howard.
Furthermore, during his retirement press conference in Orlando, Shaq passed around t-shirts that read, “The Real Superman” as a dig at his rival.
The feud got a little out of hand in March 2024 when Howard appeared on “Inside the NBA” on TNT, propelling Kenny Smith to say, “Superman is in the building.” Smith’s comments rubbed O’Neal the wrong way so much that he walked off the TNT studio.
Will More NBA Legends Enter a Boxing Ring?
In September 2024, Howard blasted O’Neal’s pettiness for holding a grudge over the Superman nickname.
“Why do I have to ask him, not Warner Brothers? Warner Brothers they own the [expletive] rights to damn Superman, not Shaq,” Howard said on his “Above The Rim with DH 12” podcast. “Why I got to ask somebody to wear a goddamn cape and a suit to do the dunk contest man?”
Howard took to X to claim that the beef between him and Shaq is “one-sided” and the latter had not made an attempt to squash it.
If the Shaq versus Gronk boxing match does come to fruition, it would mark the latest instance a former basketball player entering the ring.
In November 2020, former NBA point guard Nate Robinson fought Jake Paul only to suffer a knockout in the second round of his debut.
Then, in December 2021, Deron Williams stepped into the ring against NFL legend Frank Gore in a boxing ring. The three-time NBA All-Star won by split decision after four rounds. After his win, Williams explained why pro basketball players find it easier to crossover to boxing compared to other athletes.
“Yeah, I mean, you get hit every now [and again] in basketball,” Williams said in November 2021. “You see, basketball players, even when I was playing, you get hit every now and then in the face. … It just happens every now and then, and it happens once every 10 games or 20 games.”
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