When talking about the best championship squads, we immediately think about the likes of the legendary Showtime Lakers during the 80s, or the iconic Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls, who turned the 1990s into their own playground. And if we move a bit closer to modern times, the Golden State Warriors dynasty, especially during the years when Kevin Durant joined the mix, inevitably enters the conversation as well.<\/p>\n
Sure, many other championship rosters definitely have their say in this debate, no doubt about it. However, for\u00a0Shaquille O’Neal<\/a>, his 2006\u00a0Miami Heat<\/a>\u00a0squad belongs right up there. How high exactly? The legendary Hall of Famer recently explained.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n “I rank it high. Top three. I’m going to tell you why. ‘Cause we were not supposed to win. Trust me. And I’m not gonna divulge all the information. We were not a championship caliber team like people think a championship caliber team supposed to be,”\u00a0O’Neal\u00a0pointed out<\/a>\u00a0in the recent episode of “The Big Podcast with Shaq.”<\/p>\n “Not at all, we were bad news bears. We were. But we stayed together, we did everything together. We, I mean, they, partied at South Beach together\u2026”\u00a0the retired big man continued with a laugh.<\/p>\n Shaq came to Miami with huge expectations<\/p>\n In the summer of 2004, the Los Angeles Lakers shipped the guy who helped them capture three consecutive titles at the start of the century, as tension had been brewing in the City of Angels for quite some time. For Miami, the move meant bringing in an experienced center who knew exactly what it took to get over the hump, and the hope was that O’Neal could help young\u00a0Dwyane Wade<\/a>\u00a0reach that next level.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n And to be quite frank, things started out pretty well in South Beach. In his first season wearing the Heat uniform, Shaq and Wade propelled Miami to a 59\u201323 record, good enough for first place in the Eastern Conference. It looked like the franchise had found the formula for immediate success. However, their championship hopes came to an end in the Conference Finals at the hands of the Detroit Pistons.<\/p>\n The following season, the Heat fully embraced the identity of a gritty, battle-tested team. With seasoned mastermind Pat Riley stepping back into the head coaching role, the message around the locker room became crystal clear. There was only one thing on the agenda: winning a championship.<\/p>\n Related: “I’m like the toxic ex” – Michael Porter Jr. gets honest about Denver possibly winning a title without him<\/a><\/p>\n It paid off for the Heat<\/p>\n As O’Neal recalled, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows in South Beach, quite the opposite. He and Riley butted heads quite often, given the polarizing nature of their personalities. While Shaq asked for more freedom for everyone on the team, Riley’s military-like approach didn’t really allow that. In the end, they made it work.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n With a little bit of partying and a whole lot of winning, the 2006 Miami Heat finished their playoff run in style. They cruised past the competition in the Eastern Conference, including getting their revenge against the Pistons in the Conference Finals, before facing the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n Miami ended up taking down Dallas in six games. Wade captured his first championship and the Finals MVP, while Shaq added another ring to his collection, briefly moving ahead of Kobe Bryant in total championships for a couple of years.<\/p>\n And that is exactly why O’Neal still holds that team in such high regard. Even though it might not be the first team that comes to mind when discussing the greatest championship squads in NBA history, that 2006 Heat team clearly had a special chemistry going on. And those who were there know it best.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Related: Shaquille O’Neal explains why Jaylen Brown should remain Boston’s number one option, despite Jayson Tatum’s return: “You can ease your way in”<\/a><\/p>\n This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Mar 10, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When talking about the best championship squads, we immediately think about the likes of the legendary Showtime Lakers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[232872,7329,760,4576,38388,2243,5556,7566,1055,8173,355,181884,70916,99],"class_list":["post-514334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-2006-miami-heat","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-dwyane-wade","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-kevin-durant","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-miami-heat","tag-nba","tag-shaquille-o39neal","tag-showtime-lakers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}