It’s been just over two weeks since NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal and Golden State Warriors center JaVale McGee engaged in a war of words over social media. It started when McGee became fed up with O’Neal’s constant criticism and mockery of his play on his popular show, ‘Shaqtin’ A Fool’.
Several clips of McGee’s embarrassing plays on the court have been shown in recent years, such as throwing the ball out of bounds, losing his balance and falling over, and missing wide open dunks. McGee claims it has affected his value since the show began, claiming some executives are swayed away from potentially adding him because of it.
JaVale McGee’s teammate, Kevin Durant, immediately came to his side and took a jab at Shaq.
Kevin Durant comes to JaVale McGee's defense vs Shaq: "I didn't know cops could threaten civilians like that" pic.twitter.com/gsx79h04c8
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) February 24, 2017
O’Neal responded on social media without hesitation.
“Mind yo’ business this ain’t for you,” O’Neal tweeted. “I understand you sticking up for your teammate that’s cool but your boy JaVale McGee is still a bum, he started it I’m a finish it.”
Matters simmered down until recently, when O’Neal took yet another shot at Durant. O’Neal seemingly believes Durant needs to win a championship before talking trash.
Following from Sports Illustrated:
“KD doesn’t have G–14 Classification,” O’Neal told The Crossover, referring to his oft-mentioned “unwritten” designation that applies to players who have won titles. “He can’t talk to me like that. He may think he does, and he’s sticking up for his teammate. He’s a great player, but you ain’t in the club yet. You’re on the outside in line with [Charles] Barkley, [Karl] Malone and [John] Stockton. You’re not in the club with me and those [championship] guys. That’s why I tweeted him, ‘Mind ya business.’”
Shaquille O’Neal continued, calling the league and its star players ‘soft’.
“LeBron has a lot of clearance because he’s won championships,” O’Neal said. “But when a guy who hasn’t won championships makes comments, you say, ‘How do you know?’ … [Durant] was just trying to stick up for his teammate. If you read into what he said, none of his s— made sense. Well, actually some of it made sense. He said I was strong and I bullied people. Of course, that’s exactly what I did. I’m not going to go shoot jumpers and do all of that.
“Just put it this way: The league is soft and these guys are sensitive, period. I was sensitive [as a player] too but I never went back at [older players]. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain never said s— to [support] me. Did I cry about it? No. Kareem said in the paper one time, when they asked him, ‘Shaq is doing great, he has numbers similar to yours, what do you think?’ His response was, ‘Well, he hasn’t won a championship yet.’ I could have gone back at him, but I didn’t. I sucked it up like a real man and was like, ‘OK, watch this.’ A lot of guys, these days, when you say anything about them they start whimpering and crying.”
O’Neal, one of the league’s most dominant centers of all time, made a living off of physically overpowering and dominating his opponents during his career. He won four titles, one Most Valuable Player award, and was named to the All-Star team 15 times.
The rivalry between the outspoken O’Neal and Golden State Warriors players doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon, especially with these kind of comments from O’Neal.
