Shaq: LeBron's 'already set,' doesn't need more titles to validate legacy

Some people might hold LeBron James' 3-6 record in NBA Finals against him when it comes to evaluating his place in league history - and specifically how he stacks up to Michael Jordan, who famously won six titles without ever losing in the finals. Shaquille O'Neal isn't one of those people.

The Hall of Fame center, who won four championships in his 19 NBA seasons, thinks that James' legacy is already secure, and that James should be wary of ring-chasing in the latter stages of his career.

"Somebody told me a long time ago - they said your book is already set (before the later stages of your career). You can add index pages toward the end, but your book is already set," O'Neal told ESPN's Ian Begley on Friday. "So LeBron's book is already set. He done already passed up legends; he done already made his mark - he has three rings. His mentality now is probably 'I want to get four before Steph (Curry) does.' That's probably his mentality now. But if I was him, I wouldn't be trying to get four, five, and six, because it ain't going to matter. It's just something else to talk about, something else to add to the pages. He's a legend, talked about as who is the best between he and Michael Jordan, so he's set."

James, who has lost three of the last four finals to Curry's Golden State Warriors, can opt out of his contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers and become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. While the most common assumption is that James will look to sign elsewhere and form a new superteam that can challenge the Warriors, O'Neal isn't sure it will matter.

"Golden State turning themselves into a dynasty is making it hard for other teams to compete, so he's either going to say, 'I want to get four before (the Warriors) get four' and do a quick fix, or Cleveland's going to have to do a lot of phone calls and lot of moves to get him the squad he wants," O'Neal said. "But it's going to be difficult. You have three superstars on one team that actually play the right way."

O'Neal played his second-last season on James' Cavaliers and his last season with the Boston Celtics, and regrets "trying to make quick stops" at the end of his career in the pursuit of a fifth ring. The difference, of course, is that O'Neal was a low-end rotation player in those seasons, while James is still widely regarded as the best player on the planet.

The reality is that any team James signs with will become a championship contender overnight. But, to hear O'Neal tell it, winning more rings shouldn't be at the top of James' priority list when the time comes to make that decision.