"They haven't won s**t" - Shaquille O'Neal claims Nova Knicks are far from being NBA champions
Shaquille O'Neal, who once said that he would have played for the New York Knicks, doesn’t believe that the team is anywhere close to winning a championship. Last season, the Knicks were ranked second in the Eastern Conference. They also reached the second round of the Eastern Conference in the playoffs.
After an impressive 2023-24 season, the Knicks added Mikal Bridges this offseason. However, despite the new promising roster, Shaquille O'Neal claimed that the Knicks were far from winning a championship.
“You know what it is? New York is a place that’s built on hype, that controls the hype. They can hype everybody else up. They haven’t won sh*t. But ‘Oh New York, New York’...They are nowhere close to winning a championship.”
The Knicks have been largely overlooked in the NBA because of their decade-long failure. However, they revamped their roster a few years ago, which has earned them a playoff spot in back-to-back seasons now. With players like Jalen Brunson, Julius Randle, OG Anunoby, Donte DiVincenzo and Josh Hart, the Knicks were one of the top contenders last season.
The team pumped up its roster when it signed Mikal Bridges. Despite the absence of a superstar, Bridges is expected to make them one of the top teams in the NBA. However, Shaquille O'Neal also added in the same episode that although Bridges can play, his addition will not make the Knicks a championship team.
Shaquille O'Neal once said he would have played for Knicks if he was young
One of the reasons the New York Knicks remained out of the playoffs for so many years was that they failed to bring stars into the city. Shaquille O'Neal was also one of those people who were confused about players not joining the Knicks.
In a conversation with TMZ in 2019, Shaquille O'Neal responded to the team's dilemma.
"I never understood why top-name players wouldn't want to come here," O'Neal told TMZ Sports. "If I was a youngster, Madison Avenue would be turning into Shaq Avenue. People always talk about business and business after basketball. Knicks don't have a star player, so any superstar that comes there, Madison Avenue is going to open up them doors.”
The last big stars who played for the Knicks were Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis. According to "The Ringer," a lot of the image that was created about the Knicks treating their star players poorly was due to the bitter fallout with Melo.
Phil Jackson openly spoke about trading Melo when he was still with the Knicks. Jackson was also one of the reasons that Porzingis was traded.