It’s natural for sports fans, analysts and athletes to have strong opinions, but you should never – under any circumstances – promise that you’ll do something gross on national television if you end up being wrong.
Back in 2004, Shaquille O’Neal praised legendary coach Phil Jackson by saying his incredible run of four NBA Finals appearances in five seasons would never be matched – and said he’d kiss the feet of any other coach who pulled it off. Steve Kerr – who is in line for a kiss – shared the footage on Twitter.
“If a coach takes a team to the Finals, I’ll kiss his feet on Fear Factor. With cheese on ‘em. I will! It’ll never be done again.”
Although Shaq likely didn’t foresee the rise of NBA superteams at the time, his prediction was very, very wrong. Kerr led the Warriors to five consecutive NBA Finals from 2015 to 2019, after Miami’s Erik Spoelstra took the Heat to four consecutive Finals in LeBron James’ four seasons with the team.
There was also some historical precedent that likely should have cooled Shaq’s take. Even if you ignore Red Auerbach’s era of dominance with the Celtics, Pat Riley brought the Lakers to seven NBA Finals in the span of eight seasons between 1982 and 1989. K.C. Jones led the Celtics to four consecutive Finals during that same span.
Jackson even pulled off the four-in-five feat twice, from ’96 to ’00 with the Bulls and Lakers, and ’00 to ’04 exclusively in Los Angeles. Gregg Popovich came close to joining the club, taking the Spurs to three Finals in five seasons from ’03 to ’07 – and winning a title in each appearance.
Shaq, to his credit, is ready to pay up.
