The Golden State Warriors had a dream run to the NBA Finals and ultimately secured their seventh NBA Championship last season as they defeated the Boston Celtics 4-2 in the finals. Stephen Curry was fantastic in the postseason and especially in the Finals as he won the Finals MVP, something that was absent from his cabinet.
Former NBA champion and analyst Shaquille O’Neal made a few predictions and mos tof them came true. Looking back at his predictions, he shared how the Warriors will win the title and Sacramento Kings will not make it to the playoffs. But his prediction of Stephen Curry winning the league MVP did not go to plan but the Chef won the FInals MVP and did play at a very high level in the regular season but Nikola Jokic was simply at a different level and hence walked away with the regular season MVP award.
Reminiscing the predictions made by Shaquille O’Neal, he had said, “I’ll go first, how many you want? Golden State will win the championship, Chef Curry will win the MVP, unanimously, Sacramento Kings won’t make the playoffs.”
Most of Shaq’s predictions were right and the one he got wrong, he was very close. CUrry played at MVP level as he shot 39.7% from beyond the arc. So he raised a strong case for the MVP title but sadly he fell short but winning the Finals MVP was also a big achievement for Curry as he wanted that trophy for a long time.
When asked about his predictions, Shaq revealed how things were clear to him as he saw the Warriors play and felt that they were too much for any team to handle given the experience and their ability to step up during clutch situations.
“For me, the Warriors were the big favourites to win the title. There was no doubt in my mind. Everything went as I expected before the games started. They didn’t let me down and did their job very well,” the former Lakers legend revealed.
Shaq saw Stephen Curry’s heroics in the Finals from beforehand and he kept on warning the other teams. He shared how the Chef is the biggest problem in the league as he can shoot from anywhere on the court and he hardly misses his shots. “I think Stephen Curry is the biggest problem the league has right now. That guy doesn’t miss and he can score near the rim, from outside, beyond half court, it doesn’t matter. He gets it right every time.”
