The Lakers might finally have a center who Shaq won’t beef with

After years and years of Shaq having beef with Lakers centers, Deandre Ayton might be the first LA big man he actually likes.

For as great as he was for the Lakers on the court, Shaquille O’Neal has been anything but kind to his successors in his time in retirement.

Since basically 2019, Shaq has had a nearly constant beef with whoever the Lakers are employing at center. And if it’s not beef, it sure hasn’t been unwavering support.

However, in a shocking turn of events, Deandre Ayton, of all people, might be able to finally bridge that gap. Ayton’s relationship with Shaq is already in a better spot than anyone preceding him at the center position in recent years.

As he rose up through the ranks as a child, Ayton played alongside Shaq’s son Shareef, spawning the relationship between the two.

“It’s the LA Lakers. I’ve been watching them all the time when I was younger as well and just knowing the greats,” Ayton said at his introductory press conference. “One of the greats I do know is Shaquille O’Neal [while] growing up. I had a great relationship with him as a child growing up, playing for EYBL teams, me and his son Shareef O’Neal. Playing in the playoffs and getting to talk to him, it’s like ‘Big Unc.’ He had my back when I was winning as well. Just having that here is pretty cool.”

How much does this matter? Probably not much! But it’ll be nice to have Shaq on the side backing the Lakers than whatever he’s been doing over the last half-decade.

Shaq never had any outward beef with Anthony Davis, but he certainly wasn’t defending him. He was all too quick to jump on the bandwagon to chastise AD for his injury history whenever the moment arose.

With other Lakers centers, it’s been much more direct. No big man has seemingly annoyed him more over the last decade-plus than Dwight Howard. The mere existence of him in Orlando and the audacity of Dwight to don the Superman moniker led to years and years of jabs from Shaq his way.

Similarly, JaVale McGee was a common punching bag for Shaq, namely in his Shaqtin’ a Fool segments. In fact, McGee and Howard were so commonly on the receiving end of jokes from Shaq that they bonded in LA over their shared desire to want to fight Shaq at points in their career.

Really!

Now, Shaq is petty enough that he could just as easily flip on Ayton, too. Few former players love to bash current players more than Shaq, so we’ll see how things pan out.

But at least we won’t be starting from a bad place, right?

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.