Candace Parker teaches Shaq about modern basketball (or at least she tries)
Shaquille O’Neal won his last NBA championship in 2006. Candace Parker led the Sparks to the WNBA title 10 years later.
Shaq retired from playing in 2011. Parker is set to start her 14th season, and first with the Chicago Sky, later this year.
That might explain why Parker owned her TNT co-host Tuesday night during a discussion of the pick-and-roll in today’s game.
O’Neal, Parker and fellow co-hosts Dwyane Wade and Adam Lefkoe got started on the topic while talking about the Denver Nuggets and their star Nikola Jokic. While discussing the intricacies of defending the pick-and-roll with Wade, Parker stated, “The NBA switches now, right?”
Shaq blurted, “Why?”
Parker shrugged and answered, “Because everybody can shoot threes.”
O’Neal asked, “Whatever happened to man up?”
Parker replied, “Because you’re going to be manning up trying to recover back to your man and they’re going to hit a three just like Jokic did.”
O’Neal countered with, “Well, whatever happened to pre-rotating?”
Five takeaways from the Lakers-Suns game on Tuesday night at Staples Center.
Parker stated, “Then they moved the ball around.”
And on and on it went, with Shaq trying to drop his old-school knowledge into a conversation about modern-day basketball. It led to some awkward silences and facial expressions like these:
The consensus on social media was that Parker got the W over a basketball legend who appears stuck in a different era.
Go beyond the scoreboard
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