Shaquille O’Neal is quite active on social media. Apart from sharing random stats on his Instagram story, the TNT analyst also uses the platform to dish out any of his opinions. Recently, the Los Angeles Lakers legend shared a reel on his Instagram Story, revealing his opinion on the entire Draymond Green-Rudy Gobert fiasco.
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During the recent Golden State Warriors-Minnesota Timberwolves clash, Draymond Green was ejected from the contest. As Klay Thompson got into a scuffle with Jaden McDaniels, Rudy Gobert was present to separate the two players. Green assumed that the French star was attacking his teammate, hence, the Warriors leader came right to Thompson’s defense.
Green, who already has a lot of history with Gobert, literally assaulted the Wolves’ big man, putting him in a chokehold.
Shaq took it to his Instagram, sharing a reel that depicts his take on the entire fiasco and captioned it, “Draymond Green been a menace lately.”
Shaquille O’Neal impersonates Draymond Green
On the sets of NBA on TNT, Shaquille O’Neal did his best Draymond Green impersonation while reacting to the latter’s play. Shaq put Charles Barkley in a chokehold, and the Inside the NBA panel had a laugh about the same.
While talking about the Warriors-Wolves scuffle, Shaq was of the opinion that, along with Green, Thompson, and McDaniels, even Rudy Gobert deserved to be ejected from the game. According to O’Neal, Dray wasn’t even choking the multiple-time Defensive Player of the Year. He was merely “holding” Gobert.
This is not the first time that the Big Aristotle has defended Draymond Green’s controversial actions. During the 2023 postseason, when Green stomped on Domantas Sabonis’ chest, Shaq was among the few analysts who actually supported the GSW star. The Diesel claimed that he would’ve done the exact same thing as Green did.
“I really would. Don’t be grabbing me,” O’Neal said. “What am I gonna do? Like, if I stay there and just try to run forward, I’ll fall. You gotta get him up off you. And if you get him up off you and you in the way, you might get stomped on. Was it a dirty play? Of course it was a dirty play. … If you don’t grab me, this won’t happen.”
The NBA looked at this incident from a very different perspective than Shaq’s. Instead of showing mercy to Green, he was slapped with a 5-game suspension.
