"What colors are the banners?" - Shaquille O'Neal points out major 'loophole' in Lakers raising In Season Tournament banners
Shaquille O'Neal doesn’t seem to have a problem with LA Lakers hanging the NBA In-Season Tournament banner in the rafters. After the Lakers won the NBA Cup, the team decided to honor LeBron James and Anthony Davis as well as hang the tournament banner. The Lakers' decision to do so received a lot of backlash from fans, NBA analysts and former players.
In the recent episode of “The Big Podcast With Shaq”, O’Neal said that he didn’t have any problem with the Lakers’ decision to hang the banner. The four-time NBA champion said that when the In-Season Tournament banners are compared to NBA championship banners, there is a big loophole.
Shaq said that the IST banners are black and gold in color but the championship banners are all yellow and purple. He also called the IST banner was accoladed fag.
“There was a loophole there…What colors are the banners? It’s not really a banner, it’s just a flag, what I call a accoladed flag,” Shaq said.
“It is a championship, but the loophole is, like I said, it’s a accoladed flag. If they would’ve had yellow I would have been upset. It’s accoladed flag so I don’t mind,” Shaq added.
The Lakers received a lot of flake after they decided to hang the IST championship banner. Moreover, there have also been rumors that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver asked the Lakers to hoist the banner.
Shaquille O'Neal doesn’t agree with Draymond Green suspension
Draymond Green was suspended indefinitely after hitting Jusuf Nurkic in the head. Previously, Green had been suspended for five games after had put Rudy Gobert in his chokehold for multiple seconds in a game between Phoenix Suns and the Golden State Warriors.
However, when the league decided to suspend Green, Shaquille O’Neal said that if he was the NBA commissioner, he would have suspended Green for far fewer games. The Hall of Fame player also said that Green didn’t have any bad intentions and believed that Green was just trying to sell the call.
"I don't think Draymond said, 'Hey, I'm going to punch this guy just 'cause he's pulling my jersey,'" Shaq said while speaking with Babcock and Charles on "TMZ Live" on Thursday.
The four-time NBA champion also said that the play was just a flop going wrong. On the other hand, the league suspended Green indefinitely. Green will have to “meet certain league and team conditions” and only then can he return to the team.