Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal says this year’s NBA championship series delivered exactly what he wanted: a head-to-head battle between elite centers. Speaking to the California Post, O’Neal applauded the clash between Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs and Karl-Anthony Towns of the New York Knicks during the 2026 NBA Finals.
“I love [Wembanyama] and I love KAT, so for me this is really good,” O’Neal told the outlet. “Two big men battling it out. Let the best big man win.”
The five-game series ended with the Knicks lifting the trophy, but O’Neal said he was “happy for them both” regardless of the outcome. While guards often dominate Finals storylines, the Hall of Famer stressed that this edition “was about two big men,” a scenario he described as increasingly rare in the modern NBA.
Stat lines spotlight interior duel
Towns drew praise for his defense, helping hold Wembanyama to 42.3 % shooting from the field and 27.3 % from three-point range in the rookie phenom’s first Finals appearance. The Knicks center largely avoided foul trouble until the closing game, enabling New York to control the paint throughout the series.
Although Knicks guard Jalen Brunson posted an historic Game 5 performance to clinch the title, and Spurs guards De’Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper played key roles, O’Neal maintained that the Wembanyama-Towns matchup was “absolutely critical” to the final result.
‘Big man renaissance’ encourages Shaq
O’Neal, a vocal advocate for post play, pointed to the emergence of talents such as Nikola Jokić, Jalen Duren and Chet Holmgren as evidence of a new era for centers. The four-time champion recently said he would feel confident in a hypothetical one-on-one against Wembanyama, though he acknowledged the Spurs star “would score on him.”
For now, O’Neal is content watching the next generation of bigs take center stage—literally.
Source: Lakers Nation
