Shaq says he would have signed with the Bulls and Michael Jordan if it was acceptable

Back in 1996, Hall-of-Fame center Shaquille O'Neal made the decision to join the Los Angeles Lakers, where he would help forge a dynasty with Kobe Bryant and future Lakers coach Phil Jackson.

However, there were other options for Shaq.

Back in the day, superteams were incredibly rare. The only superteam in the NBA at that time was the Chicago Bulls, led by Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.

Jordan and Pippen led the Bulls to six NBA titles and two three-peats.

These days, superteams are more common, with a perfect example being the Golden State Warriors when they were able to lure Kevin Durant to join Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green.

Recently, O'Neal stated that if he knew that building superteams was "acceptable," he would have joined Jordan and the Bulls and later teamed up with Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs.

"So, it's supposed to be about competition. If I knew it was okay to join people, (expletive) I would have joined the Bulls," said O'Neal on The Big Podcast.

"I would have played with Mike and Scottie and then I would have left them and played in my hometown San Antonio with the Spurs. But nah, I was like, nope. I want to beat all these guys."

Shaq also reflected on Durant joining the Warriors back in 2016.

"We always thought like, 'No, you're the man. You the guy. You gotta get it done. You gotta say, you gotta make trade, you gotta do this. You can't (leave),' and I think he did it before it was acceptable," the Hall-of-Famer said of Durant.

"It's acceptable now, people just, "I wanna to here, I wanna do this. Oh hey, you play on this team, you play on this team, let's get on this team and create a Big Three.' But again, if I knew that was acceptable, I would have just went and played with Mike."

Shaq reflects on opportunity to join Bulls and Spurs

The idea of Shaq teaming up with Jordan, Pippen, and Dennis Rodman is certainly a scary thought.

The Bulls were already good enough and crushed any competition they faced. But with Shaq in the fold, things would have been that much easier for them.

Should he have gone to San Antonio later on, he would have had the chance to team up with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili. Perhaps it would have been the Spurs winning championships instead of the Lakers in the 2000s.

Granted, San Antonio won titles in 1999, 2003, 2005, and 2007 with what they had. But similarly to the possible scenario of Shaq joining the Bulls, the Spurs would have been a completely different team and likely prevented the Lakers from ever forming their dynasty.

Fortunately for the rest of the NBA, neither of these scenarios played out, but a lot of things would be different if they did, and it's certainly fun to think about what might have been if O'Neal chose to join forces with the Bulls and Spurs when he had the chance.