“You Know Who Fears LeBron James?” Ex-NBA Champ Slaps Shaquille O’Neal With Reality on 4x MVP
When Shaquille O’Neal claimed that players of today did not fear LeBron James as they did in Michael Jordan’s era, it quickly became the hot potato of the NBA world. While many veterans and analysts discussed and gave their take on the facts and stories, a former NBA champion and Cavaliers teammate of James provided a strong argument.
Channing Frye said, “You know who fears LeBron James? Organizations, coaches… LeBron is almost 40 years old and nobody wants to be No. 1 and play the Lakers in the first round.”
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Having played with the 4x champion for almost two and a half years, Frye should know what he is talking about. He further explained that going against Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Shaq was mostly one-on-one and it was a given that they would embarrass their opponents. But LeBron’s game is vastly different.
Frye used the word “cerebral” to describe his playing style. For James, it’s all about winning. But for the others, it was about winning and ensuring they left a lasting impression on the unfortunate souls. Even so, Frye pretty much issued an open challenge to everyone. He believed that there were still players who wouldn’t want to go against the ‘Akron Hammer’ in Game 7s. And that’s despite the man being almost 40.
On a similar line of thought, Channing Frye had once relayed his own experience going against the ‘Shaq Fu’.
Channing Frye and his encounter with the “ogre” changed him
In an August episode of the Road Trippin’ podcast, Frye was asked to name his Mount Rushmore players. His list included O’Neal, Tim Duncan, Magic Johnson, LeBron James, and Michael Jordan as the honoree mention. Seeing that this did not include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Channing addressed why most of his lists do not have Kareem, but Shaq.
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“I respect Kareem, but me as a human being going up against that ogre aka Shaq, I have to put him on that list because he made me change positions,” he said, looking like he was reliving that moment.
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He also made note of the point that his team would obviously include the players he grew up watching or had the opportunity to play against. And the 7’1 4x champion wasn’t someone you would forget, even if it’s just one game. A 7-foot big man himself, the Arizona product was in no way ready for the dominance and physicality that the ‘Big Diesel’ brought to the court.
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So much so that, Channing started learning to shoot more triples to somehow balance the game. But we all know balance and game plans become intangible in front of Shaquille O’Neal.
