Shaquille O'Neal has begun lobbying for Cade Cunningham to win the MVP Award and is showing some of his insecurities along the way.
The NBA MVP race is in full swing, and the San Antonio Spurs have a superstar in the mix. In large part thanks to his leading the Spurs to the second-best record in the Western Conference, Victor Wembanyama boasts the fourth-best MVP odds, behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, and Cade Cunningham.
It's hard to disparage any of the players above Wembanyama: Jokic is averaging a triple-double, and SGA and Cunningham are the best players on the two best teams in the league.
However, one legendary player is clearly pushing a hidden agenda with his MVP claim.
Shaq Calls for Cade Cunningham to Win MVP
At one point in time, Shaquille O'Neal could comfortably claim that he was one of the very best centers in NBA history. Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell seem to be stuck in their eras, so most fans would have put O'Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Hakeem Olajuwon as their top three, with O'Neal certainly landing in the top five.
As Nikola Jokic pushes him out of the top-five centers debate, O'Neal has gotten more and more insecure. The rise of Wembanyama doesn't help, and Shaq has gone out of his way to criticise Wemby before.
Naturally, Shaq doesn't want either Jokic or Wemby to win MVP this season.
“I watched [Cunningham] play the other day, and he has a complete game,” said O'Neal on Inside the NBA. “He does everything right. Not mostly right, he does everything right all the time. The way he plays, his pace, how he's playing, and they got that look....Like, ‘We're on a mission this year.'"
Granted, that praise for Cunningham is all totally legitimate; he is the engine of one of the best teams in the league on both ends of the floor. However, it's plainly clear that O'Neal does not want to see a big man win MVP or lead a Finals push. After all, Shaq only has one MVP to his name, and if Jokic can win a fourth or if Wemby can become the youngest player to ever win the award, O'Neal might think he's quickly becoming a forgotten relic of the past.