Quite understandably, Shaq was beside himself when he found out that Christian Laettner took the final roster spot on the legendary Dream Team. But, 20 years later, O’Neal has come around on the decision. Per the Mike Wise Show (via SRI):
“On the heels of celebrating the 1992 Dream Team, they only picked one college player on that team, Christian Laettner. Did you want to be on that team? Take us back to that: ‘I was pissed off. I was jealous. But then I had to come to the realization that I was a more explosive, more powerful player, but Christian Laettner was a little bit more fundamentally sound than I was. Plus he stayed all four years and graduated. … I just think it helped me grow as a player.’â€