Shaquille O’Neal’s list of NBA Championships won without a superteam
Shaquille O’Neal put together a list of NBA champions who won without a superteam, highlighting players like Michael Jordan and Nikola Jokic. However, the inclusion of Dwyane Wade’s Heat has sparked plenty of debate
Winning an NBA championship is one of the toughest achievements in sports, and history has shown that no player – not even the all-time greats – has climbed basketball’s Everest entirely alone.
You need a supporting cast, team chemistry, and the right teammates. But there’s a subtle difference between having a strong roster and needing a carefully assembled “superteam” to win a title.
Shaquille O’Neal (who recently launched his own Dunkman league) decided to stir the conversation on Instagram by posting a list of legends who, in his view, never needed shortcuts or manufactured “Big Threes” to become champions.
The club features names that most fans would readily agree on: Dirk Nowitzki, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Hakeem Olajuwon, Kobe Bryant, and Michael Jordan. O’Neal also included himself, Isiah Thomas, Nikola Jokic, and Dwyane Wade.
And that’s where the discussion becomes more interesting. If the key word is “never,” Wade’s inclusion feels questionable. While his 2006 championship run against Dallas was undoubtedly a masterpiece of individual leadership – with Shaq still productive but no longer in full Superman mode – it’s impossible to ignore the “Heatles” era of 2012 and 2013.
Alongside LeBron James and Chris Bosh, Wade was a central part of what many consider the very definition of a superteam.
The debate then shifts to the technical definition of a superteam. The second three-peat Chicago Bulls featuring Jordan, Pippen, and Rodman, or the dominant Shaq-Kobe Lakers, were legendary teams, but they are generally not labeled superteams because they were built through the Draft and trades rather than star-driven free-agent alliances.
As for the other names on the list, there is very little room for debate. The championship runs by Nowitzki (2011), Antetokounmpo (2021), and Jokic (2023) are landmarks of the modern NBA. None of them had an All-Star teammate during their title-winning season.
They carried their franchises to the promised land through a combination of resilience and elite talent. The same can be said for Olajuwon, who essentially did it alone in 1994 and, while paired with the legendary Clyde Drexler in 1995, benefited from a teammate who was already on the downward slope of his Hall of Fame career.
Regardless of the Wade debate, Shaq’s list celebrates those champions who led their franchises to the top of the basketball world by relying on team strength and individual greatness rather than carefully orchestrated superstar alliances.