Shaquille O’Neal Calls Out Lakers For Doing Frank Vogel ‘Dirty’

The Los Angeles Lakers decided to part ways with their head coach. Frank Vogel was fired after the final game of the regular season. The Lakers waived Trevor Ariza and then fired the head coach. The front office wanted to make some big changes and I guess Jeanie Buss wanted to move on without Vogel. Their goodbye message was pretty short… “Thank you.” That’s the message Rob Pelinka and Co. delivered after confirming Vogel’s firing. According to Shaquille O’Neal, the Lakers made a big mistake in the Frank Vogel case.

Several analysts placed the blame on the Lakers head coach. The Lakers had a disappointing season, but we can’t really say it was Vogel’s fault. Pelinka brought a lot of new names to LA and some of these guys failed to make an impact. Some of them didn’t really get a chance to make an impact. Injuries, COVID, inconsistency… Lakers players struggled with this and much more. Let’s not forget that Russell Westbrook failed to meet everyone’s expectations. He didn’t deliver the monster response everyone expected to see.

Shaquille O’Neal stands with Frank Vogel, talks about disrespect

O’Neal criticized the Lakers for their decision to fire Vogel. He respects the team, but claims they did him dirty.

“Yeah he was done dirty ’cause that’s how I heard I was getting traded,” said O’Neal and talked about the disrespect he had to deal with back in the days.

The NBA icon didn’t stop here. He doesn’t want other coaches to waste their time in LA. Yes, O’Neal would’ve quit long before getting fired by Pelinka.

Vogel found out about the firing during the press conference following the win over the Denver Nuggets. Reporters asked him about the firing and his response was pretty awkward. The Lakers hadn’t told him a thing.

Vogel led the Lakers to a title inside the Orlando bubble. He did a really good job with the team, but the last two seasons were disappointing. Vogel had to deal with many injuries and changed his gameplan every other game.

That’s not all. Vogel was without LeBron James and Anthony Davis for a big chunk of the season.