Former Los Angeles Lakers star Shaquille O’Neal shared his thoughts on Manu Ginobili’s Hall of Fame speech.
The former San Antonio Spurs star was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for his outstanding NBA career, and O’Neal gave him props for the accomplishment.
“I’m happy for Manu,” O’Neal said. “Manu definitely deserved to be there, so does Tim Hardaway and Del Harris. So, congratulations to all the guys.”
Ginobili was emotional during his speech as he reflected on his career.
O’Neal jokingly pretended to cry before giving Ginobili a hard time for letting emotion get the best of him.
“Real players like Spice [Adams] and myself don’t be crying,” O’Neal said. “There’s no crying in basketball.”
It’s very on-brand for O’Neal to give a fellow NBA legend a hard time, but he’s clearly very happy for Ginobili, who had a terrific NBA career with the Spurs.
A second-round pick in the 1999 NBA Draft, Ginobili became an integral part of the Spurs dynasty in the 2000s. He won four NBA titles during his career and was named to two All-Star teams. He also won the league’s Sixth Man of the Year award in the 2007-08 season.
Ginobili came off the bench for a good chunk of his NBA career, starting just 349 of the 1,057 games that he appeared in for the Spurs.
He earned two All-NBA selections and averaged 13.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game while shooting 44.7 percent from the field and 36.9 percent from beyond the arc in his NBA career.
The best stretch of Ginobili’s career came from the 2004-05 season through the 2010-11 season. Over that stretch, he averaged 16.8 points per game and was named an All-Star twice.
Even though O’Neal won’t let Ginobili live down the speech, it’s clear the former Lakers big man is happy for his former opponent and his accomplishment.
