It’s becoming increasingly difficult to avoid Jake and Logan Paul these days. The YouTube stars have already infiltrated the wrestling and boxing worlds, and now they’ve invaded Inside the NBA, too. The brothers appeared on the show last night to promote their new Max show Paul American, which they pitched to Adam Lefkoe as “Testosterone Kardashians.” They also continued their long-running, friendly beef with Shaquille O’Neal, who taunted them while wearing an interesting combination of a suit jacket and pajama pants.
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“Don’t come to my show with your little arms all out,” Shaq said before one of the Pauls shot back with, “You better back up, I know karate.” Poor Lefkoe was used as a human shield by Shaq as Candace Parker and Vince Carter looked on. And yes, this whole thing was done inside a boxing ring. Apologies to anyone who tuned in to see Hawks-Rockets highlights!
Shaq famously lost a million dollars by betting on Mike Tyson to beat Jake Paul in November’s over-hyped snoozefest of a fight. Paul reminded him of this by pointing a finger in his face and saying, “See what I do to 50-year-olds.”
It would be mildly interesting to see Shaq fight one or both of the Pauls, if only because of his massive size. But such an event isn’t something the world or Netflix’s struggling bandwidth needs, so let’s not speak it into existence.
The Big Diesel has been beefing with the brothers since he gave them a hard time when he appeared on their Impaulsive podcast back in 2022. Although they are not the only ones with whom he has had public spats, playful or not.
Shaq is known as a gentle giant, but he also relishes a good celebrity fight
Shaq publicly feuded with Shannon Sharpe last year after the legendary big man told Nikola Jokic that he thought Shai Gilgeous-Alexander “should’ve been the MVP” over him. “That’s no disrespect to you, but congratulations,” O’Neal added.
Sharpe shot back that the former Lakers star is jealous of Jokic’s success. Shaq responded, and the whole thing culminated in the Big Diesel releasing a diss track about Sharpe that, let’s just say, wasn’t quite at the level of Not Like Us.
Shaq is a promoter at heart, as we can see by his numerous pitchman jobs for products as varied as Papa John’s Pizza, Buicks, and Ring doorbell cameras. Feuding with Sharpe only helped both men get ratings and headlines, just as his wrestling promo-quality conflict with the Pauls on Inside the NBA should only help their new reality show.
