Shaquille O’Neal on a Jaylen Brown-Kevin Durant trade for Boston Celtics: ‘Hell no’

Don’t count Shaquille O’Neal among those that find the prospect of a Jaylen Brown for Kevin Durant swap to be a good idea for the Boston Celtics. When asked about the possibility on the “Rich Eisen Show,” Shaq simply said ‘hell no.’

The hesitance seems to be with O’Neal’s belief, or lack thereof, in Durant after wanting to leave a team he had a hand in constructing from the top down. O’Neal challenged the 33-year-old by saying to KD ‘you as a leader, should make it work, but you don’t want to make it work, I guess you go buy another house.’

O’Neal really honed in on the home-building metaphor, referencing KD and Kyrie Irving by saying ‘you were the one who hired the architect, you were the one who got the other architect from Philadelphia.’ O’Neal didn’t relent in his attacks on Durant.

“You know he’s probably trying to get to a contender. It’s easier that way.”

Potential downsides of a Kevin Durant trade to the Boston Celtics

Shaquille O’Neal knows a thing or two about moving teams successfully, having signed with the Los Angeles Lakers and producing a three-peat of championships alongside Kobe Bryant from 2000-2002 before winning another with Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat in 2006. So far, Kevin Durant has gone on to complete the first step of that path by winning a title with the first team he himself chose to sign with in unrestricted free agency, but doesn’t seem willing to win with the next team in his journey unlike Shaq did.

After watching the Golden State Warriors reach the top of the mountaintops without him, proving he needs them more than they need him, Durant is now risking facing the same scrutiny he did in his original Dubs move. In fact, joining a Boston Celtics team that just swept his Nets before reaching the Finals may be an even more meme-able offense than when he joined a Warriors team that squeaked past his Oklahoma City Thunder in seven games.

Durant would always be seen as Jayson Tatum’s sidekick on the Cs following a hypothetical blockbuster, as opposed to what Jaylen Brown is now: his 1A co-star by virtue of showing up in Boston a year before No. 0 did.