Shaquille O’Neal explains why he’d have a $400 million contract in today’s NBA

Shaquille O’Neal believes he would earn his current total net worth of $400 million in 5 years if he played in today’s NBA.

In this off-season, NBA teams opened up their vault to get the services of the best players they acquire and let them become the biggest earners in the history of basketball.

While the Washington Wizards locked Bradley Beal down with a $251 million, 5-year supermax deal, a day later Denver Nuggets finalized a $270 million deal for the 2x MVP, Nikola Jokic.

The Joker would earn a whopping sum of $61,446,000 in the 2027/28 season. Damian Lillard meanwhile upped both those numbers when he got a 2-year $122 million added on his 4-year $176,265,152 contract which was going to expire after the 2024/25 season.

Bradley Beal: 5-years, $250M
Nikola Jokic: 5-years, $260M
Damian Lillard; 5-years, $270M

Loyalty. 💵 pic.twitter.com/IRgPvmhFLH

— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) July 8, 2022

They joined Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo as the top earners of the league. Such a huge sum of money will obviously get some massive reaction from former players and after Charles Barkley clearly put forth his jealousy of what players are able to make now, Shaquille O’Neal also showed his jealousy.

Also read: 340 lbs Shaquille O’Neal claims to have had lesser body fat than Cristiano Ronaldo

“If this is legal, I’m go a 400 for 5”: Shaquille O’Neal

Chuckster had already called out his mother for conceiving him too early and not giving him a chance to play in this era. His Inside the NBA co-worker did not take the funny route though.

While repeatedly calling out Rudy Gobert’s $205 million contract that he signed with the Jazz back in 2020, The Big Aristotle estimated how much he’d earn in today’s NBA after requests from fellow podcasters on The Big Podcast With Shaq.

The 15x All-Star looked least bothered about other players earning 50s and 60 million but kept his full concentration on Rudy making 200 in 5 years and said he himself should be making 400 in 5 years if it was legal.

If you look at Jazz paying their 3x DPOY whatever they did at the time, it didn’t look too costly but if we look at how much his defense and 15 points, 13-14 rebounds, 2.5 blocks season in the last 4-5 years have contributed to Utah’s success, they wouldn’t surely budge to pay Shaq 400 if it meant they get 3-4 championships.

Also read: NBA Reddit brings up Shaquille O’Neal’s stats between 2000-02 NBA Finals and they are atrocious to say the least

About the author

Akash Murty

An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

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