Shaquille O’Neal and Draymond Green got into a tense exchange on the latest episode of The Big Podcast over the outcome of a hypothetical game between their respective Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors championship teams.
O'Neal was also interested in finding out who Green would choose to guard him. "Please don’t say Andrew motherfucking Bogut," he added.
"I don't think any one player on our team could have guarded you," Green responded, which seemed like a satisfactory answer for Shaq. But when Draymond suggested throwing different defensive schemes at one of, if not the most dominant big men in NBA history, to slow him down, O'Neal could not believe what he was hearing.
"One is not letting you get the ball, so we're going to guard you with a guy in front of you and a guy behind you," Draymond explained to Shaq with an incredulous look on his face.
"They did that," O’Neal said of teams who took a similar defensive approach.
Draymond countered, "Yeah, yeah…I wasn't on the court though."
The 2017 NBA Defensive Player of the Year believed he could play in front of Shaq and prevent him from receiving the ball. O'Neal pushed back on that game plan, bringing up his significant wingspan advantage over Green.
The 2000 NBA MVP eventually asked Draymond who the Warriors' backup center would be if Bogut found himself in foul trouble. "Me," Green answered.
"Draymond, stop," O’Neal begged.
The segment ended on a hilarious note, with Shaq looking down in disbelief after hearing Draymond say Klay Thompson would guard Kobe Bryant. See the highlight above, and watch the full segment up top starting at the 26:55 mark.
There was nothing Green could say to convince Shaq that even the best Warriors championship team could defeat the Lakers squad that pulled off the last three-peat in NBA history in 2000-02.
"I think we'd easily win," O'Neal said in a 2018 interview with USA Today Sports. "Other people might feel different, [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 and stepped over Ty Lue."
