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Shaquille O’Neal recently sat down with Sports Illustrated for an interview. They resurfaced a video of AJ Dybantsa, the 2026 NBA Draft’s No.1 overall pick, claiming that if he could dunk on any player, past or present, he would ‘dunk’ on the seven-foot-one-inch-tall Lakers legend.
When asked about his response to this claim, O’Neal initially acted like he didn’t know who AJ Dybantsa is. Subsequently, he hilariously made some remarks that would make anyone who knows Shaquille O’Neal’s personality think he is not seriously threatening Dybantsa.
“Oh, he’s an NBA player? He better call his doctor, cause I’mma lay his little a– out,” O’Neal said.
What makes this even more hilarious is that when Dybantsa made the claim initially in June, O’Neal was standing right beside him and even spoke to him about it. Yet now he acts like he does not know the Wizards’ No. 1 overall pick of the 2026 NBA Draft, despite being a TV analyst for ESPN.
Clearly, he was joking, as even in the original video of these remarks from Dybantsa, O’Neal acknowledged that he knows Dybantsa and would be looking forward to seeing him play. When AJ Dybantsa had said the same thing to his face, O’Neal simply denied it.
“No. Only been dunked on three times in 19 years,” O’Neal responded in the initial video.
NBA fans saw these claims on social media and took to the comments section while pointing out how outrageous it is for a 19-year-old rookie to say something like that about a legend of O’Neal’s stature. But some fans also pointed out how this is a repeated joke that O’Neal tries to pull where he acts like he does not know who a player is.
“I’m so tired of Shaq playing this nonchalant gimmick where he don’t know the new generation of NBA players who are legit BETTER than his a– lmfao 😂”
“Does Shaq realize it’s part of his job to know who AJ is?”
“This is the same dude who said he will take Bol Bol over Victor Wembanyama.”
“Only Shaq can get away with disrespecting like this haha.”
“Prime Shaq could break just about anyone.”
“The ‘Who’s that?’ was so much more disrespectful than the original answer.”
Various such reactions were all over social media as fans could seemingly see through the pretense that O’Neal was using to set up his response. Everybody knows that despite the tough exterior that O’Neal shows, he’s extremely banterous and loves to play jokes and make fun of people in his old age.
Whoever knows Shaquille O’Neal understands that he is not being serious, and this is just a way for him to sensationalize his denial of the remarks made by Dybantsa.
Of course, we cannot take Shaquille O’Neal back to his prime days, so we can’t truly judge whether Dybantsa would have been able to do that. But right now, I’m fairly certain Dybantsa can do it.
Do you think AJ Dybantsa would have been able to dunk on Shaquille O’Neal in his prime? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
