New Lakers center Dwight Howard fired back at former great Shaquille O’Neal. ( Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)

New Lakers center Dwight Howard responded to Lakers icon Shaquille O’Neal on Thursday, one week after O’Neal put him behind former Lakers center Andrew Bynum and Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez in his center rankings.

“I don’t care what Shaq says,” Howard told reporters after practice Wednesday, according to The Los Angeles Times.”Shaq played the game and he is done. It’s time to move on. He hated the fact when he played that older guys were talking about him and how he played. Now he’s doing the exact same thing. Just let it go. There’s no sense for him to be talking trash to me. He did his thing in the league. Sit back and relax. Your time is up.”

Howard is meshing well with his new team after a rather tumultuous offseason full of trade rumors before he finally was shipped from Orlando to Los Angeles.

But he’s not on good terms with one of the franchise’s former stars, as O’Neal last week placed him below Bynum and Lopez in his pseudo power rankings of centers.

“I’m not talking about dunking, I’m talking about playing like a big man with moves,” O’Neal, who is now an analyst on TNT, told NBA.com. “My man [Lopez], before he had the foot injury, was putting up nice, solid big-man numbers. He don’t have a lot of flash, a la Tim Duncan, but he can play. If you put him with a nice team around him, you can get a lot from this big man. Like if you want to go to flash and dunking and the pick and roll, you gotta go with Dwight Howard. But me, the last true original dun duda, I’m going with Andrew Bynum and [Lopez].”

Here’s where things could get awkward: The Lakers are set to retire O’Neal’s jersey in an April 2 ceremony. But when asked if he needed to “get on the same page” with O’Neal before then, Howard shot back with an incredulous-sounding question.

“What do we need to be on the same page for?” Howard said. “I have respect for him and what he did for basketball. That’s it. When my time is up, there’s going to be somebody else who can do everything I can do and probably do it better. Instead of me talking about him, I’ll do my job to try to help him get where I’m at. I think that’s what guys who have done it before us should do.”

Shaquille O’Neal now co-owns a movie theater in Newark, New Jersey. (Joe Murphy, Getty Images)

Just call him “The Big Popcorn.”

Former NBA champion and MVP and current TNT NBA analyst Shaquille O’Neal can now add “movie theater owner” to his long list of titles, after re-opening the CityPlex 12 theater near the center of his hometown of Newark, New Jersey, according to the Associated Press. O’Neal also co-owns and operates the multiplex.

As is Shaq’s M.O., the theater went big with improvements. Renovations include six new screens, including one that measures 47 feet wide. In case you were wondering, that’s just over six and a half Shaqs long.

As for whether O’Neal himself will get any screen time at the new complex – don’t count on it. The new owner admitted that it wouldn’t show his 1996 movie Kazaam during it’s introductory “30 Days of Shaqness” promotional event. At least, not if the theater wanted to stay in business.

Shaquille O’Neal says Dwight Howard needs three NBA titles to get people’s respect. (Brett Deering/Getty Images)

Future NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal took the opportunity out of his busy schedule (owning 55 Five Guys restaurants and 40 24-hour fitness centers) to speak to the New Orleans Times-Picayune to discuss rumors about the Mexican League and his thoughts on Dwight Howard joining the Los Angeles Lakers.

The TNT analyst said that rumors about him joining the Mexican League are total fabrication, when the media could have just called him to confirm the news.

“No truth to that. It’s kind of unfortunate that so-called experts have to get their sources from the Internet,” O’Neal said. “It’s backwards. Especially like when people from ESPN know me and they can call me and ask me, but somebody else said it so they want to be the first to report it even though it’s not true. However, we could talk, but nobody has contacted me.”

When asked if he had a reaction to Howard’s trade to the Lakers, O’Neal said,

“I don’t have a reaction. You have to care to have a reaction. I’ve got businesses to run. I always tell people that in order to step in my shoes you have big shoes to fill. For him, he’s going to have to at least win three to get people’s respect.”

The Orlando Magic’s coaching search appears to be coming to a close, with current San Antonio Spurs assistant Jacque Vaughn the seeming front runner according to a report from the Orlando Sentinel.

This development does not please former Magic big man Shaquille O’Neal. The TNT analyst took to Twitter this afternoon to vent his feelings on the potential hire, and its impact on the Magic’s wantaway star Dwight Howard.

Orlando magic is about to hire jock Vaugh over mike Malone or Brian shaw are u kidding me, wow, good luck winning wit Dat team Dwite howard—
  (@SHAQ) July 22, 2012

O’Neal and Vaughn met on the court in the 2006 Eastern Conferense semi-finals, when O’Neal’s Miami Heat defeated Vaughn’s New Jersey Nets 4 games to 1 en route to the Heat’s first NBA championship. Vaughn got a measure of revenge two years later as a backup for Tony Parker and the San Antonio Spurs, who beat O’Neal and the Phoenix Suns 4-1 in their opening round playoff series.

In an interview with Vibe, recently retired NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal said he didn’t think former teammate Steve Nash deserved two MVP awards.

When asked by Vibe if the future Hall-of-Fame center underachieved because he was only able to win one MVP in his career, O’Neal answered:

“Steve Nash is my boy, but I don’t see how [expletive] he got it twice. I was taught never to complain because you can’t beat the system. People know who the real dominant guy was. But Steve Nash, I don’t want to say it”

While O’Neal was considered one of the more dominant players to play during his era, his only MVP came in the 1999-00 season when he averaged 26.7 points, 12.3 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks per game. He was also named the NBA Finals MVP three times.

Nash won back-to-back MVP awards in 2004-05 and 2005-06.

Former Boston Celtics center Shaquille O’Neal believes Chris Paul is not a better point guard than Rajon Rondo and that trading Rondo for Paul would be a bad idea, CBS Boston reports.

“Everyone is tradeable, you could probably get a lot for Rajon Rondo but he is the heart and soul of the team,” O’Neal, now retired, told a Boston area sports radio network. “I don’t think that would be a good idea. If I was the general manager, I wouldn’t do it.”

“Chris Paul is not better than Rajon Rondo… Rajon Rondo is the true definition of a point guard, period,” O’Neal continued. “He gets everybody involved and he scores when he has to. Chris Paul scores a lot of points, but when was the last time they made it to the playoffs? Thank you very much.”

Shaq’s comments come as rumors spread that the Celtics are shopping the 25-year-old Rondo in hopes of finding a player with a better scoring presence. The New Orleans Hornets were reportedly not interested in a straight-up trade between Rondo and Paul. As a result, it’s been reported that Boston is now hoping to involve a third team, the Indiana Pacers, to get the deal done.

Shaquille O’Neal told KTLA today that former teammate Kobe Bryant is “probably the greatest Laker of all time.” The former Most Valuable Player was appearing on the station’s morning show to promote his book, “Shaq Uncut.”

“Based on what he’s done, he’s probably the greatest Laker of all time,’” O’Neal said on KTLA Monday . “If he gets another championship, he’ll tie with Kareem. That will put him up there.”

“It’s a different kind of great,” O’Neal said of Bryant compared to himself. “He had the skills to be an all-around player. I’m just a big man so I just do big-man stuff. I’m just in the big-man category.”

Excerpts of O’Neal’s book that were previously released revealed some less kind words about Bryant. One specific excerpt, which was shared by Deadspin, claims that Bryant’s sexual assault charge blew apart the Lakers dynasty of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Other released excerpts  of the book have called out how the Cleveland Cavaliers dealt with LeBron James, and claimed that Boston Celtics forward Glen Davis is a selfish player.

Together Bryant and O’Neal helped the Lakers win three consecutive NBA titles from 2000-2002. The rift between the two forced Los Angeles to choose between the two superstars and the Lakers sent the 32-year-old O’Neal to the Miami Heat before the 2004-05 season.