LSU basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal is a well-respected icon of the sport of basketball, one whom many players currently playing today grew up watching. But even he can have an awkward moment with a player in a postgame interview. Take Thursday night’s postgame interview with Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz, after Mitchell led the Jazz to a victory over the New Orleans Pelicans.
Shaq has been known to have some tough criticism of players in the NBA today. Mitchell was on the receiving end of some of that tough love when O’Neal classified Mitchell as a scorer who will get his points but may be lacking in a few key areas to elevate his game to the next level. After the Jazz victory, Shaq admitted to Mitchell he was merely trying to motivate him.
“Aight.”
“I’ve been hearing that since my rookie year.”
Spida responds to Shaq’s criticism. pic.twitter.com/F5pkBGCMdA
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) January 22, 2021
Shaq seemed surprised that was all Mitchell had to say. Perhaps Shaq was hoping for a less standoffish conversation. Whether or not there is any real bad blood brewing between these two remains unknown, but Mitchell seemed to take it in stride and explain to Shaq the comments were nothing new to him.
As for Shaq, we’ll see which young NBA star decides to give him the one-word treatment next.
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