Tag: shaquille o’neal

Nets’ Ben Simmons gets mocked by NBA HOFer Shaquille O’Neal

Brooklyn Nets guard Ben Simmons was recently mocked by NBA Hall-of-Famer Shaquille O’Neale in a recent episode of “The Big Podcast.”

Brooklyn Nets guard Ben Simmons is currently out for the rest of this season due to the nerve impingement in his left lower back not getting better with treatment. He recently had surgery to address his back issue and as such, Simmons is still looking for answers to his injury question.

In the meantime, there are some in the media who look at Simmons’ recent bout of injuries as something of a money grab as opposed to a player struggling to stay healthy. In a episode of “The Big Podcast” that was published recently, NBA Hall-of-Famer Shaquille O’Neal said that he would pay to watch Simmons play basketball, but not for the reasons that most people would watch a player.

O’Neal said that he would pay to watch Simmons on the basketball court because he wants to learn “how you can make $80 million and play 55 games.” O’Neal was referring to how Simmons has played in 57 games over the past three seasons despite being paid $33 million, $35 million, and $37 million over that time span.

Simmons, 27, signed a five-year, $177 million extension in July 2019 while he was still a member of the Philadelphia 76ers and was coming off his first All-Star appearance. Since signing that extension, Simmons made All-Defensive first team twice, two All-Star appearances, and made All-NBA third team once.

However, things began to go downhill for Simmons after the 2018-19 season as he played in 57 of 73 games in the 2019-20 campaign and in 58 of 72 games in the 2020-21 season before missing the entire 2021-22 campaign due to a combination of a holdout and a back injury that required surgery.

What makes Simmons such a polarizing player is the fact that he was considered to be one of the NBA’s great, young players as he was being compared to the great LeBron James at one point in his career. However, Simmons has dealt with a multitude of injuries since then that have prevented him from seeing the floor, let alone getting back to his prior All-Star form.

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Shaq revealed why calling Caitlin Clark the GOAT of women’s basketball was a no-brainer

“Name a woman who’s doing what Caitlin Clark is doing. I don’t know one.”

Shaquille O’Neal is unapologetic about his thoughts on Caitlin Clark.

He recently called her the greatest women’s college hoops player ever, which has caused a lot of debate in basketball circles. The more we thought about it, the more we had one question for him: WHY?

Shaq is not one to beat around the bush. He tells it like it is and stands on his words. So, it wasn’t a shock to hear him chat with the NBA on TNT crew in February about Caitlin Clark and definitively dub her the greatest women’s college basketball player of all time. He immediately received pushback from his colleagues asking him if he’d heard of Cheryl Miller, Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi or Candace Parker. But he didn’t flinch.

While promoting his “How to March Madness” campaign and “Tips from the Tool Shaq” content series with Home Depot, O’Neal recently revealed to For The Win his criteria for calling Clark the greatest women’s hoops player ever to do it.

Here’s what Shaq shared with us about his Caitlin:

“You always have to look at the stats. If a person has 20 [points], they are great. She has 30. Wouldn’t it automatically make her great? I say yeah. The way she plays, shoots and puts her team on the map — nobody has done what she’s done. The reason why Steph Curry is my favorite player is not because he’s bigger and stronger and gotten more done. It’s because nobody has ever done what he’s done.”

“Name a guy who’s ever done what he’s done. Name a woman who’s doing what Caitlin Clark is doing. I don’t know one. I know one that’s close — JuJu Watkins. I’ve never seen anybody play like Miss Caitlin Clark. That’s why I say she’s the best college player ever. It’s all subjective, but it’s just my opinion. Nobody is doing that step-back Steph Curry shot like Caitlin Clark, and she does it every game. [On March 10], she had four points [in the first half] and then came back with 30. That’s greatness right there.”

Shaq’s son Shaqir O’Neal enters the transfer portal

Shaqir O’Neal appeared in 20 games this season with one start at Texas Southern.

Another son of former LSU star and NBA Hall of Famer [autotag]Shaquille O’Neal[/autotag] has hit the transfer portal.

Shaq’s son [autotag]Shaqir O’Neal[/autotag], who previously played for Texas Southern, has opted to transfer. A 6-foot-8, 201-pound forward from Los Angeles, O’Neal was a redshirt sophomore for the Tigers this season.

He’s appeared in 20 games with one start in each of the last two seasons, and in 2023-24, he averaged 1.8 points and 1.8 rebounds.

A three-star recruit who attended Union Grove High School in McDonough, Georgia, O’Neal ranked as the No. 284 nationally in the 2021 class, per the 247Sports Composite Rankings. His brother, Shareef, began his career at UCLA before transferring to LSU.

The elder O’Neal brother appeared in 24 games as a backup for the Tigers over two seasons. He went undrafted in 2022 and briefly spent time with the G League Ignite.

Shaqir is a largely unproven player, but coach [autotag]Matt McMahon[/autotag] could take a flyer on a legacy.

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Follow Tyler to continue the conversation on Twitter: @TylerNettuno

Shaquille O’Neal thinks no player has feared LeBron James

Former Lakers great Shaquille O’Neal said that while people feared Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, the same isn’t true of LeBron James.

Many people agree the greatest NBA player of the past dozen years or so has been LeBron James. His accomplishments speak for themselves, and he’s not done yet, at least not individually.

The debate about where he ranks among the greatest basketball players of all time continues to rage. Some believe his individual accomplishments and 10 NBA Finals appearances make him the greatest, while others cite his 4-6 record in the championship series as the reason they believe he doesn’t rank extremely high on that list.

Perhaps one critical requirement for being the greatest ever is being feared by the rest of the league. Last year, Mario Chalmers, a former teammate of James on the Miami Heat, said no one fears the league’s all-time leading scorer. On a recent episode of “The Big Podcast,” Shaquille O’Neal said  while players feared Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, he has never heard of a player fearing James.

Chalmers then elaborated on his claim that no one fears or has feared James.

“It’s not that you shouldn’t fear ‘Bron,” Chalmers said. “I just think, at the end of the day, ‘Bron has been through so much that he wanted to be liked. So it was kinda like, ‘I’m gonna do things now where people like me, people will respect me.'”

There is no doubt, regardless of where he deserves to rank among the greats of the NBA, that James has a different personality than Jordan or Bryant. Bryant, the late Los Angeles Lakers great who won five world championships with the team, was made into a villain due to the immense volume of hate he received from fans and journalists. He decided to embrace being a villain, and above all, he needed to win to be OK with himself.

James has a different type of motivation that drives him, but he has still placed himself into the highest pantheon of basketball greatness alongside men such as Jordan, Bryant, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Shaq revealed that he called Angel Reese to praise her for avoiding the LSU-South Carolina melee

“The only thing you have to fight for is to fight for your team.”

In the aftermath of the LSU-South Carolina scuffle on Sunday, Shaquille O’Neal revealed that he thinks Angel Reese did the right thing by avoiding the action on the court.

There’s been a lot of chatter about the dust-up between South Carolina and LSU. As the story continues to unfold, Angel Reese took to social media on Sunday to clarify that she was not involved in the fourth-quarter scuffle with South Carolina because she was already injured on the previous play and that a person of her status has to think about being involved when things like that happen.

While promoting his “How to March Madness” campaign and “Tips from the Tool Shaq” content series with Home Depot, O’Neal — who’s also Reese’s mentor — recently told For The Win, that he spoke to Reese after the game, telling her she did the right thing by not being involved.

Here’s what Shaq shared with us about his conversation with Reese:

I see she’s taking a lot of flack. ‘Oh, she should have been there.’ This is not fighting. The only thing you have to fight for is to fight for your team. The game was played closely. Things like that — you don’t want them to happen. When they do happen, you just move on.

I called her and I said, ‘You did the right thing. Trust me, you did the right thing, because if would have went out there, they would have been looking for you. You and [Kamilla] Cardoso get into a shoving match. She’s already ejected. Can’t play in the next round. That would have happened to you. It would have been all your fault.’ So, she did the right thing. Kudos to her.

LeBron James’ double-digit scoring streak is now longer than Lakers great’s career

LeBron James’ streak of scoring at least 10 points in each game has gotten ridiculous.

When it comes to the legacy and resume of LeBron James, the greatest thing he has going for him is his longevity. It is arguable if he has the greatest or most productive peak in NBA history, but his prime is arguably longer than that of any other player in league history.

On the season, he’s averaging 25.3 points, 8.0 assists and 7.1 assists a game while shooting 53.0% overall and 40.7% from 3-point range. No, he doesn’t exactly play a whole lot of defense anymore, but other than that, the 39-year-old has been about as productive as he’s ever been.

After sitting out a game due to ankle soreness, James returned to action on Sunday and delivered 29 points, nine assists and eight rebounds as the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 120-109. That performance meant that his streak of consecutive games with double-digit points is now at 1,208.

That’s one game more than former Lakers great Shaquille O’Neal played throughout his entire NBA career.

That streak is the longest such streak in NBA history. James long ago passed Michael Jordan, who previously held the record after surpassing another legendary Laker, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in that category.

Shaquille O’Neal thinks Dikembe Mutombo disrespected him in 2001 NBA Finals

One aspect of Dikembe Mutombo’s strategy against Shaquille O’Neal in the 2001 NBA Finals didn’t sit well with the great Lakers center.

In his eight seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, Shaquille O’Neal established himself as one of the most dominant players in NBA history. He won the league MVP award and helped lead the Lakers to the first of three straight world championships during the 1999-2000 season, and his performance that season was arguably the most dominant of any player ever.

In the 2001 NBA Finals, he and his Lakers went up against the gutsy Philadelphia 76ers. While the 76ers were anemic offensively, they had the Defensive Player of the Year, center Dikembe Mutombo.

Perhaps some thought Mutombo could contain O’Neal and give Philly at least a puncher’s chance at winning it all. But O’Neal said on his podcast, “The Big Podcast,” the plan was for Mutombo to guard him one-on-one, and he saw that as disrespectful.

“I like him, but it’s like a new rapper coming in and saying, ‘T.I.’s not a great rapper.’ Don’t disrespect me,” said Shaq. “During the Finals, Uncle Jerome (Crawford, O’Neal’s bodyguard) comes in and goes, ‘Hey, man, Mutombo says he’s Defensive Player of the Year, he don’t need no double-team.’ Don’t disrespect me by saying you gonna play me one-on-one. I take that as a sign of disrespect. So I’m looking at the paper, ‘I’m Defensive Player of the Year, I can play Shaq one-on-one.’ It’s a sign of disrespect. It’s like any new (expletive) rapper coming in and saying, ‘That (expletive) T.I. did ain’t all that.’ So I get it and the first play of the game I look: The (expletive) double ain’t coming. I said, ‘Oh OK. I’m knocking his (expletive) teeth outta his head…'”

The Sixers won Game 1 of that series despite 44 points and 20 rebounds from O’Neal, as Allen Iverson erupted for 48 points. Although they were competitive for much of the rest of the series, they ultimately fell to Los Angeles in five games.

O’Neal simply eviscerated Mutombo by averaging 33.0 points, 15.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 3.4 blocked shots a game in the series. At times, his sheer physicality was too much for the 7-foot-2, 260-pound Mutombo to handle.

While the Sixers earned praise across America for their heart and never-say-die attitude, the Lakers earned the Larry O’Brien Trophy and established the foundation for another dynasty.

Cam Newton talks to Shaquille O’Neal about viral fight: ‘I could be in jail’

Panthers great Cam Newton was a guest on this week’s episode of “The Big Podcast with Shaq,” where he got into what happened in Atlanta.

What happens when Superman meets Superman? Well, you get a whole lot more than a silly meme of them pointing at each other.

What happens is what went down on Wednesday’s episode of “The Big Podcast with Shaq” from Playmaker HQ, where NBA icon Shaquille O’Neal interviewed Carolina Panthers legend Cam Newton. Basketball’s Superman began by asking football’s Superman why things can sometimes get a bit too heated at his youth events.

“It’s the access,” replied Newton, who was recently involved in a brawl at a 7-on-7 tournament in Atlanta. “Access. Just to give you context, right—so anybody who knows me know I’m a product of my environment. Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. What you saw was, those were grown men, those weren’t kids. So that narrative was familiar coaching, and it got chippy. For me, that’s not the first time that happens. And honestly, knowing my world, that probably won’t be the last.

“I think looking back at it, yeah. People see like, ‘Yeah, Cam standing on business. Yeah, Cam had bobby pins in his head.’ Those are all funny things, but when I look at it, it’s like, man, it coulda ugly . . . on both sides. ‘Cause I’m the type of person, when I feel triggered, I react. It’s not, ‘Come on Shaq, let’s go get ’em. Come on, let’s go.’ I’m not that person. You say something to me and I go, I don’t think, and that’s the issue. And that’s where my whole support was kind of caught off guard. We were talking, something was said and then it was like, ‘Hey, hey, where you going?’ I’m going to use the restroom.”

Newton is certainly no stranger to trash talk at these outings, especially from the kids. But this time, it was a pair of opposing coaches that he mixed it up with.

Newton continued.

“But that’s just how I rock and roll. You know what I’m saying? But I just have to be better and I want to use this as an example for athletes, entertainers, people of influence,” he added.

“You may want to be at In-N-Out Burger, you want to go to Chick-fil-A, you want to just go to a hookah lounge, you just want to hang out. Somebody going to say something triggering to you and it just takes one time, and ugly because I could be in jail, somebody filing a lawsuit.”

Fortunately for everyone involved, nothing of the sort came as a result of the incident.

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WATCH: Nick Foles, Jalen Hurts among those congratulating Jason Kelce on retirement

Jalen Hurts, Nick Foles, Charles Barkley, Shaq, Jim Thome, and Joel Embiid were among those who congratulated Jason Kelce on retirement

Jason Kelce ended his 13-year NFL career on Monday, announcing his retirement in an emotional press conference that featured friends, family, and teammates.

The New Heights Podcast’s social media team released an emotional tribute video with Jalen Hurts and Nick Foles, among almost 20 video messages to Kelce to celebrate the moment and his accomplishments.

A sixth-round draft pick out of the University of Cincinnati in 2011, Kelce started and played in 193 games over his 13 seasons.

Jason Kelce is the fifth center in NFL history with at least six All-Pro selections. The other four — Jim Otto, Bulldog Turner, Dermotti Dawson, and Jim Ringo — are all in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

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Check out Shaquille O’Neal’s best plays with the Boston Celtics

Check out some of Shaq’s best plays with the Boston Celtics.

Although he was only a member of the Boston Celtics for a single season, Hall of Fame center Shaquille O’Neal left a lasting impression when he joined the team in the summer of 2010. One of the NBA’s most charismatic and celebrated personalities, it was a surprising signing for a roster already bursting with character and talent.

O’Neal claimed he elected to come to Boston in part to chase Tim Duncan, who at the time also had four titles and a plausible case for best big man of the modern era. Unfortunately, injuries derailed O’Neal’s ability to help the Celtics compete for another banner in the 2011 playoffs, and he played only 12 minutes in the postseason. Boston fell to the Miami Heat in the second round of the playoffs that year.

Still, there were some memorable moments from O’Neal’s time in Boston. You can check out Shaq’s best plays as a member of the Celtics thanks to Dunkman827 on YouTube.