Shaq Says His 2001 Lakers Would Beat the Warriors
To Shaquille O'Neal, the Los Angeles Lakers' record 15-1 playoff run in 2001 means more than the Golden State Warriors' record 73-win regular season in 2015-16.
At least that was the implication.
The NBA great-turned-TNT broadcaster told Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press that his Lakers team would have beaten the current defending champions—whether they were playing under the rules of that era or the rules of the present.
"If you're using those rules, we'd win," O'Neal said. "Now we use these rules these days, we'd still win, because you wouldn't be allowed to touch me, you wouldn't be allowed to touch Kobe [Bryant]."
The Lakers won the second of three straight championships under Phil Jackson that year, when, as Mahoney put it, "O'Neal could be an even bigger physical force before rules changes loosened the game for free-flowing offenses like Golden State's to thrive."
