Few people nowadays truly understand how dominant a player Shaquille O’Neal was. On top of being an absolute unit of a human, Shaq was quick for his size and had impeccable footwork. That’s why when a fan compared a performance by Jarrett Allen to the Hall of Fame big man, Charles Barkley took to TNT to speak on the foolish take.
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Let’s start by giving flowers when they’re due. Jarrett Allen played amazingly in today’s playoff win over the Miami Heat. He led the team in scoring with 22 points on an almost perfect 8-9 shooting. Allen also logged 10 rebounds and went 6-6 from the free throw line in just 28 minutes of play. An impressive performance, all things considered.
But just because Allen showed flashes of brilliance doesn’t mean he had a Shaq-like performance. One fan thought he did, though. And they felt the need to tweet about it for the world to see. Well, Charles Barkley didn’t take too kindly to the comparison.
“They got Jarrett Allen looking like prime Shaq right now,” the host of the show read.
“See, there you go. Knock it off,” Barkley responded. “Just knock it off. I’m a big Jarrett Allen fan, and obviously, you know how much I love Hunter. But come on, knock it off. Just because you got a computer at home doesn’t mean you can tweet stupid stuff. Are you serious right now?”
It was nice to see Barkley come to the defense of Shaq for once. Usually, the two are bickering over career numbers or the modern-day game. But a comparison to Allen was where Barkley drew the line.
“Thank you, big brother Chuck,” Shaq said.
Chuck isn't rocking with the Jarrett Allen-Shaq comps after his big first half 😅 pic.twitter.com/VllsmkIOQm
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 26, 2025
Of course, once fans caught wind of the clip, they had reactions of their own. Mostly because Shaq and Charles seemed to miss the true point of the joke tweet. Some pointed out how the comment was more of a diss on how bad the Heat’s defense looked today.
“This is making fun of the Heat. No need for Shaq to take it personally,” someone wrote.
“That’s more a knock on the other teams defense. But comprehension skills aren’t cared about anymore so,” another agreed.
One person, though, thought that the clip was an indictment of who Shaq is as a person. After all, he usually gets upset whenever he’s compared to anybody. It seems like Shaq thinks he’s the greatest player of all time sometimes.
“Shaq only like being compared to God himself,” they commented.
Shaquille O’Neal doesn’t like modern-day bigs
Furthermore, Shaq doesn’t like being compared to modern-day big men, let alone a non-dominant one like Allen. In general, he hasn’t been a fan of where the game has gone with all of the three-point shooting and lack of a post game. Which makes sense, because the post was where Shaq made a living as a player. It’s something he once talked about on a podcast.
“Should I stop talking about all the big men? They get sensitive. I don’t care about that, but I don’t like going back and forth,” Shaq said on his podcast The Big back in January 2025. “Kareem ain’t never messaged me on the side, it just made me become greater. Mr. Kareem, thank you for always being on my case. I’m done, I’mma have to turn it over. I’m taking it with me, the Big Man Alliance is no more.”
Shaq clearly thinks that the center position has gotten soft since his playing days. But it’s not like bigs like him are still common in the game today. In fact, a big man like Allen is probably the most comparable to Shaq at the moment due to the lack of options.
Most centers nowadays can shoot like Chet Holmgren, Victor Wembenyama and Kristaps Porzingis. Now, it pays to be tall and lengthy with an ability to shoot, rather than tall and wide with a dominant presence around the rim.
So, no, Allen is not Shaq, and the performance he put in today wasn’t Shaq-like. But that also wasn’t the point of the tweet. However, think about it, what other big man who’s on a good team now plays like Diesel? Zion Williamson, maybe. Or maybe even Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Either way, neither of those guys is a center. It’s a hard question to answer in 2025. Which is kind of sad, and scary in a way, to think about.
