As the NBA playoffs slowly approach, basketball analysts and fans are discussing which players would benefit most from a championship run. Kevin Durant and Nikola Jokić seem like obvious choices, for different reasons, but Shaquille O’Neal thinks another player needs a ring even more than them this season.
The TNT analyst named Sixers point guard James Harden as the player with the most to prove during in the postseason this spring.
“James needs to win a championship,” O’Neal said on NBA on TNT Thursday night. “A lot of people think he doesn’t play well in the playoffs. What you gonna do Mr. Harden?”
O’Neal admitted that he was partially using this take as a way to try and motivate Harden into leading a team to a championship. Harden, a former MVP and six-time All-NBA first teamer, has made the conference finals twice but lost each time.
He also tried to add some motivation to Joel Embiid, who hasn’t even made a conference finals yet in his career.
“Two years in a row they’re saying you’re the second best big man,” O’Neal said, presumably referencing Jokić. “This is your year to show you are the best big man.”
This will be Harden and Embiid’s second playoff run together, but first following a full season together. Philadelphia is current 40–22, and a good bet to get the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference, as they are 2.5 up on the current No. 4 seed Cavaliers but 4.5 games back of the No. 2 seed Celtics.
