Shaq: “We all know Boston had the easiest run ever to that championship.” Udonis Haslem: “They did.” (x6) Shaq: “Can they back it up?” (Both Shaq and Haslem picked the Mavericks to win the Finals; the Celtics beat them in 5 games.)
by Brady331
@National Basketball Association
38 Comments
Dumb and dumber
I was wondering if Shaq was still lame. Thanks for the update.
Haslem actually said “They did” 8 times, I apologize
I follow the NBA since 2004, you can basically do the whole “easy path” or “asterisk because injury” thing for litterally EVERY champion, like obviously sometimes it’s crazier then other, but litterally EVERY yeas a superstar gets hurt, a conference suck or things like that.
The Celtics won, banners fly forever, they had an AWESOME regular season and then survived all playoffs without the guy who was arguably their second best player during the regular season
haslem is a boston hater this is known
Shaq when he’s not funny is unbearable
Thing is I agree they had the easiest run but the way I see it I think last years Celtics, when healthy, had the biggest gap between first and second best team in any single season ever. They were so much better than the rest of the league it’s going to look easy no matter what.
Kind of a crazy take when 2023 Denver is right there
You know whike i do agree with Shaqs take that this was an easy af title run (seriously no team that played the Celtics had their main guy healthy), none of us even expected the Celtics to actually strugle before the finals.
Like even if they were in the west, theyd have been the favorites to win it all and it never felt like they were even going all out.
Missing KP through the whole run and still being that dominant should count for somethibg too..
I dont think the Celtics are quite 16-3 good, but i also dont think they would have lost to any of the teams they played even if those teams were 100% healthy and the Celtics were still missing KP.
Maybe theyd have played gonne to 6 games in some of those, but at no point would they have been in danger of lossing a series.
They just had the Mavs number this year. The Pacers could steal a game, but realisticly they didnt stand a chance. The Cavs were much the same. And the only one id imagine would have given them issues was the Heat if they had Jimmy.
The Warriors had some VERY easy runs too
Multiple runs where they faced teams just as their best players went down
Haslem hates the Celtics the bum ass 😅
Shaq is always whatever when it comes to analysis and i hate the “easy” stuff and I really hate saying “it dont matter” but lets be real, Celtics are obvious favorites and always were. They will be favorites again for the East again this year. Their starting 5 is the envy of the league.
The benefit of getting the 1 seed in the regular season and having dept to avoid over using players and getting injuries
Easiest path in the east and then ethered the best the west had to offer while missing our 3rd best guy, after a full season of fucking everyone. Haslem should try crying less
Well the #1 seed should have the easiest path
By any measure, the Celtics run *was* easy, but the more I think about it, I really think they would’ve always beaten the opponents they faced. *Maybe* if they faced a different team in the finals, like the Nuggets, I could see a different champion, but that’s a real stretch.
Who cares
imagine a 7 foot tall, 400 pound man, complaining that other people had an easy walk to basketball success
As a Celtics fan the picks for the finals were hilarious, really shows how much a lot of the talking heads actually know about the game. I like to go back to this video every now and again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3hYpV18Krg
I’m not a Celtics fan but it’s weird to me that people don’t want to give the Celtics their flowers. The stats show that they were a historically good team. 5th best point differential of all time. I also thought it was weird that so many experts were picking Dallas. No offense to Dallas who had a great season but you didn’t have to be an expert to see that the Celtics were a nightmare matchup for Dallas.
I like Shaq a lot but he should not be talking about titles with asterisks because if we’re giving asterisks to championships than the 2002 Lakers and the 2006 Heat would be the first in line.
Do these people not realize that the best team always has the easiest path to the finals because they’re better than everyone else?
Haslem is an all time bum. It’s awesome the heat have made him feel like someone. Really just solidifies the fact the entire franchise is a joke.
Friendly reminder Shaq reportedly threw a week old bucket of feces and piss over his team mate. Dude has amazing pr for such an obvious insecure person
2015 Warriors didn’t face one healthy team and one of the worst Finals teams ever.
The way the Nba is discussed is all so tiresome. I completely understand fans falling off the product.
Such an easy run they weren’t even the favorites to win! (By Shaq and Mr. Heat Culture’s merit)
Nuggets path in ’22-’23: wolves, Lakers, Sun, heat. Average of 43.5 wins per opponent. Zero teams with 50 wins played en route.
Celtics path in ’23-’24: heat, Cavs, pacers, Mavs. Average of 47.75 wins per opponent. Played 50 win Mavs in finals.
Miss me with this obviously easiest path ever shit. Wasn’t even “obviously” the easiest path in the last two years and literally no one was dogging the nuggets for coming up against an 8 seed in the finals and labeling it easy. But all these dopes who picked the Mavs to win now saying they were a part of our easiest path ever. The cognitive dissonance must be dizzying. Haslem I can almost give a pass because he’s a shameless Celtics hater. C’s could save Earth from an enslaving alien race and he’d still talk shit, at least he’s consistent. Shaq is just a moron analyzing basketball. Just stick to being the comic relief on inside the NBA while you can big fella.
Guys probably have a collective IQ of 100
This is why NBA discourse is by far the fucking worst in American sports.
When they back it up, what’s his excuse going to be? “Boston is the weakest two peat champions of all time”
Haslem a scrub
2001 Lakers had an easy run
why cant anyone admit the celts were that good?
I’m pretty sure the easiest championship was the one that involved a certain team shooting a zillion free throws any time their opponent breathed on them.
I’m not a Celtics fan, and I’ll admit I did plenty of hating, but man this is getting really out of hand
Celtics were favorites all year, then all of the sudden they get to the playoffs and they’re supposed to lose somewhere along the way?
I never got that part of it.
UD doesn’t deserve his jersey retired.
I’ll never change my mind on that
Shaq is a lazy analyst just like he was a lazy player. The only difference is he was actually a talented basketball player in terms of physical ability.