Meanwhile … Dwight Howard gets first taste of Lakers melodrama

Shaquille O’Neal isn’t a fan of Dwight Howard, and apparently the feeling is mutual.

O’Neal, now serving as a TNT commentator, said recently he believed former Lakers center Andrew Bynum, now with the Philadelphia 76ers, and Brook Lopez of the Brooklyn Nets were the best true centers in the game today.

Howard, the current Lakers center, fired back Thursday.

“I don’t care what Shaq says,” Howard said of the former Lakers center, who also moved from Orlando to Los Angeles amid much teeth gnashing in central Florida. “Shaq played the game. He’s done. He’s gone. It’s time to move on.”

It’s not the first time O’Neal has made disparaging comments about Howard, and it’s not the first time one former Lakers center has attacked another one. Wilt Chamberlain used to jab Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on occasion back in the 1980s.

“He hated the fact when he played that the older guys were talking about him and how he played and now he’s doing the exact same thing,” Howard said of O’Neal. “Just let it go. There’s no sense for him to be talking trash to me.

“He did his thing in the league. He’s one of the most dominant players to ever play the game. Just sit back and relax. You did your thing. Your time is up. So, I don’t really care. … He can say whatever he wants to say.”