{"id":148280,"date":"2025-07-05T04:21:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T04:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/148280\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T04:21:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T04:21:25","slug":"jermaine-oneal-on-whether-he-could-beat-flagg-wembanyama-lebron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/148280\/","title":{"rendered":"Jermaine O’Neal on whether he could beat Flagg, Wembanyama, LeBron"},"content":{"rendered":"

As you’ve probably heard, the Indiana Pacers<\/a> need a center. Myles Turner signed with the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a>, leaving the Pacers, right now, with Tony Bradley<\/a> and (maybe) Isaiah Jackson<\/a> (he’s a restricted free agent) at the position on the roster.<\/p>\n

But there is a free agent with a long history with the Pacers who thinks he could help out in a very specific situation: Jermaine O’Neal.<\/p>\n

“I like my chances against anyone in the post,” O’Neal, 46, said during a visit to The Dan Patrick Show<\/a>. “If we’re talking full court, I’m not doing that. These legs don’t have that much gas.”<\/p>\n

O’Neal said he’d dunked as recently as a month ago and that he could lead any rec league in scoring.<\/p>\n

“I try to stay in pretty good shape,” O’Neal said. “Every year I have kids from my school or my club<\/a> that want to challenge me 1-on-1. I’m the old guy they think they can beat. I have to remind them I got paid to do this. I’m not going to allow a teenager to beat me.”<\/p>\n

Re-live the Pacers unbelievable run to the 2025 NBA Finals with IndyStar’s commemorative book<\/a><\/p>\n

Jermaine O’Neal: How fatherhood and an NBA Finals run brought Jermaine O’Neal back to the Pacers<\/a><\/p>\n

O’Neal made six all-star teams with the Pacers from 2001-2008, was All-NBA three times and Most Improved Player in 2001-02. He averaged 18.6 points, 9.6 rebounds and 2.4 blocks.<\/p>\n

Patrick immediately started asking O’Neal who he could beat, including No. 1 draft pick Cooper Flagg, Victor Wembanyama and LeBron James.<\/p>\n

“Just straight post work? I think I have a chance,” O’Neal said. “Throw me the ball in the post, 1-on-1, I still like my chances because I’m still nimble. Mano a mano, I’ve got a chance. I have a chance to win in a 1-on-1, whether I win or not, we’ll see.”<\/p>\n

Get IndyStar’s Pacers coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Pacers Update newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As you’ve probably heard, the Indiana Pacers need a center. Myles Turner signed with the Milwaukee Bucks, leaving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,103,113,126,3866,947,2542,625,102,121,636,367,6,62,67,61,81,114,66,83,637],"class_list":{"0":"post-148280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indiana-pacers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bucks","10":"tag-indiana","11":"tag-indiana-pacers","12":"tag-indianapacers","13":"tag-isaiah","14":"tag-isaiah-jackson","15":"tag-jackson","16":"tag-milwaukee","17":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","18":"tag-myles","19":"tag-myles-turner","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-neutral","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-overall","24":"tag-overall-neutral","25":"tag-pacers","26":"tag-sports","27":"tag-sports-news","28":"tag-turner"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114798715512698095","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}