*By Max Godnick*
Not everyone is rooting for the Golden State Warriors to continue their dominance after announcing plans to sign a fifth All-Star in Demarcus Cousins.
And those naysayers can now add the sport's most iconic, bellowing voice to its chorus of criticism.
"I think it's a little bit broken," said Shaquille O'Neal about the state of the NBA in an interview with Cheddar on Friday.
The four-time NBA champion and and 15-time All-Star is no stranger to success on the league's biggest stage. During his 19-year career, he played alongside current and future Hall of Famers including Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, and Dwyane Wade. But none of his teams started five of the best players in the league or required the same free-agency acrobatics necessary to construct the Oakland behemoth.
And the unprecedented consolidation of elite talent has [some](https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-golden-state-warriors-have-broken-the-nba-1530619138) sounding the alarm about the death of the league's competitive balance.
"I just miss the days where guys would compete against each other," O'Neal said, looking back on the storied, and largely equal, rivalries between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and IsiahThomas, and Shaq's own Lakers and Tim Duncan's San Antonio Spurs.
The NBA has seen a social-media-driven renaissance over the past decade. It leads the other major American sports leagues in Twitter and Instagram followers and has spawned a digital ecosystem of memes, hot takes, jokes, and real-time commentary that has allowed its popularity to reach new heights.
O'Neal said the digital landscape created a win-now atmosphere that's fueled the rise of "superteams" like the Warriors.
"There's so much pressure on these kids to win," he said, adding, "everybody wants to be a winner, so a lot of these guys are taking the easy route just to get a championship."
It's hard to say LeBron James is taking shortcuts on his path to winning an elusive fourth title. The superstar just announced he'll sign with the Los Angeles Lakers for a four-year, $154 million contract. But unlike his stints in Miami or Cleveland, James won't be immediately joined by a fellow All-Star on his new team.
"LeBron is going to need a lot more help if he wants to compete with the Golden State Warriors," said O'Neal.
The 'Inside the NBA' analyst played for the Lakers from 1996 to 2004, winning three championships along the way. He said he thinks James "will do great" on the team, but thinks management should find a way to trade for disgruntled San Antonio Spurs star Kawhi Leonard if they hope to put up a fight against the Warriors - a group Shaq called, "the most talented team in NBA history."
For the full segment, [click here.](https://cheddar.com/videos/why-shaq-thinks-the-nba-is-broken)
After two incredibly close games, the Super Bowl matchup is set. On February 13th, at the SoFi stadium in Inglewood, California, the Los Angeles Rams will face off in their home stadium against the Cincinnati Bengals. After 54 Super Bowls where a home team never hosted the game on its field, it will now happen for the second year in a row, after Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Bucs last year. Speaking of Brady, ESPN dropped a bombshell of a headline Saturday that Tom Brady was set to retire after 22 seasons and seven rings. To discuss all the latest NFL news, Anthony Tall, President of Miracle Sports Group, joins Cheddar News.
In January alone, the gaming sector has seen three major acquisitions. Yesterday, Sony added to the flurry of M&A activity in the gaming space, snatching up game developer 'Bungie' for $3.6 billion dollars. Renee Gittins, executive director at the International Gaming Developers Association, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
NFL legend Tom Brady says he is done playing football after 22 seasons. Cheddar News speaks with Trey Wingo, Chief NFL Analyst at Pro Football Network, about Brady announcing his retirement.
Greg Bishop, Senior Writer for Sports Illustrated, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says Tom Brady's legacy is all about 'progress' and expects the future Hall of Famer to bolster his entrepreneurial ventures following his retirement.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America has been a driving force for youth mentorship since 1904. The nonprofit organization is launching its annual Big Draft campaign this month in partnership with the NFL, and Artis Stevens, the first Black CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, joined Cheddar to discuss the push for adding more "Bigs" as mentors on his one-year anniversary leading the non-profit organization. "While the NFL is recruiting and drafting more players, they're also helping us to draft more mentors and, particularly, men all the way from across February to all the way to April of this year," Stevens explained.
On this episode of Cheddar Reveals, Jim Riordan, Director of the MBA Sport Management program at Florida Atlantic University, breaks down the successes, failures, and chaos of the first seven months of the Name, Image, Likeness policy in college athletics; Adi Kunalic, President of Opendorse, discusses the first-ever association-wide deal in college athletics between Opendorse and the NAIA, and how Opendorse is marketing and educating student-athletes to make the most of their NIL deal potential; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Predicting a Pro'.
Jim Riordan, Director of the MBA Sport Management program at Florida Atlantic University, joins Cheddar Reveals to break down the successes, failures, and chaos of the first seven months of the Name, Image, Likeness policy in college athletics.
Adi Kunalic, President of Opendorse, joins Cheddar Reveals to discuss the first-ever association-wide deal in college athletics between Opendorse and the NAIA, and how Opendorse is marketing and educating student-athletes to make the most of their NIL deal potential.
With the Beijing Winter Olympics set to get underway on Friday, Dan Wolken, a national columnist for USA Today, joined Cheddar News to break down the big storylines as the pandemic and international conflicts threaten to cast a cloud over the event that is aspirationally seen as a beacon of international cooperation. Wolken noted specific issues over cybersecurity for visiting athletes and disputes over human rights leading to a diplomatic boycott have been making waves even before the opening ceremony. "So you've got sort of these barbs going back and forth already between the Americans and the Chinese, and things haven't even started yet," he said. "We don't even know what's going to happen once the games start and people actually start winning medals."
