Shannon Sharpe Claims He’d “Fight Everyday” if Giannis Antetokounmpo Slapped Him on the Head

Shannon Sharpe is ready to throw hands. Well, ready to hypothetically throw them, that is. That’s because the NFL legend saw a video of NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo slapping a member of the Greek basketball team. That moment, which has since gone viral, has the three-time Super Bowl champ shaken.

So shook that he had to address it during the latest edition of his Nightcap podcast alongside Chad Ochocinco and Joe Johnson. The trio looked at the clip of the Greek Freak slapping someone’s head, and Sharpe just couldn’t hold in his rant any longer.

“Ocho, you know ain’t no way that’s gonna fly on a football team,” stated the now 57-year-old Sharpe. “I don’t care how many MVPs he won. I don’t care how great he is. We got to fight everyday till I win.” Those are big words from a man behind a microphone, but on the other hand, Sharpe is known to back up his words.

That said, the famed Tight End later joked that he didn’t know the context of Giannis’s slap, but it doesn’t matter. “I don’t know where we are. We could have been in front of the president, the prime minister. Boy, come on now. Don’t play like that with people now. You slap someone that hard, that’s a fight,” he claimed.

Ocho and Johnson wondered if the player that the Bucks star slapped had it coming. “He might have not been paying attention to the coach, or he might have disrespected the coach. That ain’t got nothing to do with Giannis. You tell that man, ‘Hey, pay attention.’ You slap that man?” asked Sharpe, who refused to let the minor incident go.

Sharpe then declared that he would sneak attack Giannis to get his revenge if he were the player. “Guess what? He gonna forget all about it, and that’s the day Imma go upside his head with that bottle.” It’s hard not to laugh at the thought of the NFL legend hitting a blindside attack like it’s a WWE match. He did bring up a good point about the optics of the situation, and wondered what would have happened if LeBron did the same thing.

This prompted Ocho to bring up Michael Jordan. “Did you not hear about Jordan beating up on his teammates?” asked the legendary Bengals wide receiver. “Did you not hear what I said? We’re fighting too.” You think just because he Jordan, boy, look here, anybody can get their ass clipped,” responded Sharpe with confidence.

There’s only one way to settle this. We need a best-of-seven series, but not between two NBA teams. But a showdown between Shannon Sharpe and Giannis Antetokounmpo, two icons of their sports, and see who the last man standing would be. My money is on Giannis, if only because he’s younger, has a longer reach, and isn’t about to let some old man talk trash on a minor moment that he doesn’t understand the context of.

Understandably, though, Giannis’ slap may have been born out of boredom. The Greek freak has been sidelined from playing for his country for a while, mainly because of insurance issues. This has caused him to do a lot of things that have gone viral, including the slap on his teammate.

About the author

Joseph Galizia

Joseph is a Las Vegas based actor and circus performer. For the last seven years he's had the pleasure of covering sports for multiple outlets, including the Lifestyles section of Sports Illustrated. In that time, he's conducted over 50 interviews with athletes, filmmakers, and company founders to further cement his footprint in the journalism world. He's excited to bring that skillset to the SportsRush, where he'll be covering the NBA news cycle.

Read More