Shaquille O’Neal and Rudy Gobert just don’t seem to like one another. For what seems like the thousandth time, the Lakers legend has hit out at the Wolves star’s gargantuan contract. The latter even responded to this rather strongly, claiming that Shaq is only trying to stay relevant. And as he revealed, this is something former NBA man Gilbert Arenas has taken issue with.
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The current situation transpired when O’Neal was asked who he believes is the worst NBA player of all time. Without hesitation, he announced Gobert as his pick. Explaining why, Shaq proclaimed that it was because the Frenchman did not deserve his contract, and took his own example as justification for the same. He said,
“Rudy Gobert… You know why? I’m going to tell you why. If you sign a contract for $250 [million], show me $250! There’s a reason why I walk funny, why I can’t turn my neck… Because I played for my $120 [million]! So, you got guys like him that f**k the system over, make all this money, and they can’t f**king play.”
Rudy Gobert was never going to take kindly to ‘The Big Diesel’s comments. Not long after the comments against him were made public, the 32-year-old hit back at Shaq.
He claimed that it was sad to see someone with O’Neal’s resume still infuriated by the success of another. In the end, he claimed that Shaq was only doing all this to stay relevant.
“It is sad to see someone that has accomplished as much as you did [Shaq] both in sport and business still be triggered by another man’s finances and accomplishments. I get the entertainment part but unlike other folks, you don’t need that stuff to stay relevant.”
Gobert’s reaction may seem like he is lashing out a bit, but it does still seem justified. After all, Shaq may be taking it a bit too far with the contract narrative now. However, Gilbert Arenas didn’t seem to bother with this line of thinking.
Instead, he took issue with what Gobert said in his response, claiming that the relevancy argument was a weak one. He claimed that it was also incorrect, considering that it was O’Neal’s job to talk sports, and Rudy was a sportsman. On Gil’s Arena, he stated,
“I hate the relevant part!… I don’t like when people use that. Like, his job is to talk sports, you’re an athlete… If we [sports analysts] don’t talk about you [athletes], you’re not relevant! If we don’t mention you at all, you’re going to be thinking about, ‘Oh, all these accomplishments, why I can’t get on TV?’. Because nobody wants to talk about you.”
Simply put, Arenas flipped the narrative back onto Rudy. He claimed that Shaq had the right to say whatever he did since he is a professional NBA analyst, so the Frenchman just has to accept whatever is said about him.
O’Neal is massively respected within the NBA community and for good reason. His resume speaks for itself, and he can provide insights into the life and mentality of NBA athletes. That said, to put this on Rudy Gobert does seem a bit unfair.
Shaq has carried on the same narrative about the player for years now, reiterating it over and over again. It is only justified for the Frenchman to be a bit tired of hearing the same thing all the time.
Unfortunately for him, it is unlikely that many will agree with his argument, especially considering that The Big Diesel really wasn’t just trying to stay relevant. So, in the end, he will just have to take the noise all the same.
