Rudy Gobert wants no part of a feud with Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal, and he let us know all of us about his thoughts on this.
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Shaquille O’Neal had gone on air 4 days ago to ridicule the Jazz offering Gobert a $205 million contract. Gobert was believed to be angling for a supermax deal. He settled for the contract, which is in excess of a max deal. As a small market team, the Jazz had little choice but to pay their star defender.
Gobert first made an All Star team last season. He had career highs in rebounding and scoring, though he did not win the Defensive Player of the Year award. However, given that he had 2 DPOY titles in the qualifying period, Gobert was eligible for supermax money. He had no bones going after that bag.
Shaq’s comments came on the All Things Covered podcast, on its New Year episode.
Rudy Gobert quashes rumors of beef with Shaquille O’Neal despite comments
O’Neal had called Gobert ‘an inspiration for all the little kids out there that if you average 11 points, you get $200 million’. It was definitely in poor taste for a big man who’s still far and away the greatest center of the century.
But Gobert showed class and disdain at the same time by refusing to engage with Shaq’s shenaningans. Shaq even posted on Instagram to ridicule the big man, but the Frenchman refused to bit at the low-hanging fruit.
There is no beef. If people wanna keep speaking negatively about me or keep discrediting what i do it’s on them and all that does is show who they are. I will always be happy for a brother beating the odds. And i’m gonna keep beating the odds. https://t.co/l241ZQ2Qk4
— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) January 4, 2021
At the end of the day, nobody could care less about other people’s opinions than an athlete guaranteed $200 million. Gobert definitely won’t lose sleep over Shaq’s criticism, knowing he stands nothing to gain by responding to it.
