Shaquille O’Neal might have a statue outside Staples Center now, but it doesn’t mean he’s wholly satisfied with how his career played out. In a story chiefly about Friday’s ceremony, Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated quoted O’Neal telling him earlier this month that he’s still peeved that Steve Nash won the Most Valuable Player award over him in 2005 and ‘06, among other gripes:

“LeBron [James] and myself are similar,” O’Neal told SI.com earlier this month in Atlanta. “We could be MVP every year. But [the voters] don’t give it every year and he’s already got four. [I should have won] three, easily. Kobe should have won three, too. [I should have won] the two that Steve Nash got over me. It pisses me off. [Nash] knows.”

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For the record, O’Neal retired in 2011 with five top-three MVP finishes, eight top-five finishes and 13 top-10 finishes. He was runner-up to Robinson in 1995, runner-up to Nash in 2005, and injured for a good chunk of the 2006 season when Nash won his second MVP. Even O’Neal’s sole MVP win remains a sore spot, though, as he was one vote shy of becoming the first unanimous MVP in NBA history. Warriors guard Stephen Curry claimed that honor last year.

“The one where that crazy dummy Fred Hickman f---ed up my historical [unanimous MVP] so now Curry gets the first unanimous,” O’Neal said. “That bothers me a lot.”

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“What also bothers me that I missed 250 games because I would have been at 33,000 points,” O’Neal told SI.com earlier this month. “I just got passed up by Dirk [Nowitzki] and LeBron is about to pass me too. Forget the free throws, I missed like three seasons worth of games.”

Golliver notes in the piece that O’Neal was “denied a storybook ending,” a fact that nobody wanted to bring up at Staples Center except Jerry West, who lamented the fact that the Los Angeles Lakers traded him to the Miami Heat. The Hall of Famer ended his career bouncing from the Phoenix Suns to the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics, finishing with a long list of accomplishments that could have been even longer had he been able to stay healthier or coexist with Kobe Bryant for a few more years. 

O’Neal is keenly aware of his place in history, and he knows he’ll be remembered as one of the greatest to ever play. If he was a more serious person, though, his sour grapes would likely come off a little differently. This is a guy who routinely gave himself nicknames and referred to himself as the Most Dominant Ever, so he’s generally given the benefit of the doubt with this kind of thing. It clearly does, however, make a difference to him whether he’s considered, say, the second-best center ever or the sixth-best. 

Frankly, given how great he was, he’s not exactly wrong -- in retrospect, it is a little crazy that he only won one MVP award. You could make a case for him deserving it in 2001 over Allen Iverson, too.