Shaq reveals painful 'what could've been' Mavericks scenario on podcast

The Dallas Mavericks are amid their first NBA Finals appearance since 2011 against the Boston Celtics right now, and Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving are trying to prove the doubters wrong one game at a time despite the Game 1 loss.

The doubters who thought the Irving trade wouldn't work out are eating their words right now, and he and Doncic are morphing into an all-time great duo.

The Mavericks made some huge trades over the last year and a half to build this team, and there was one trade in recent memory that could have changed this franchise history tremendously in the early 2000s.

Shaquille O'Neal reveals he wanted to be traded to Mavericks from Lakers

According to Shaquille O'Neal, he wanted to be traded to the Mavs from the Los Angeles Lakers and team up with Dirk Nowitzki. O'Neal said this on his podcast "The Big Podcast."

O'Neal said he tried to get traded to the Mavs "many times," but it just never worked out. This would have been one of the craziest frontcourt duos of all time with him and Nowitzki, and they could have won multiple championships together.

Over his career, O'Neal averaged 23.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 2.3 blocks per game while shooting 58.2 percent from the field. He is known as one of the most dominant players of all time, and his negotiations with Mark Cuban "behind the scenes" to try to get him to Dallas from the Lakers never came to fruition.

This trade could have positively affected a large portion of the Nowitzki era in Dallas and helped him compete for more titles, and Mavs fans will have to live with the pain that one of the greatest centers ever wanted to be on the Mavs.

Shaq won multiple titles with the Lakers, and Mavs fans will never know how many titles he could have won in Dallas.

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