mobile app bar

Shaquille O’Neal Wants Ben Simmons To ‘Find His Roots,’ Shares Kevin Garnett’s Message

Raahib Singh
Published

Shaquille O’Neal Wants Ben Simmons To ‘Find His Roots,’ Shares Kevin Garnett’s Message

The 2022-23 NBA season is about to come to an end. With most teams just having one game left, Sunday will be the last day of the regular season action. Shaquille O’Neal and the guys on TNT recently discussed their playoff picks and their ‘dark horses‘ in the West.

While the West is still a mess, with the 5th to 8th seed still open for the taking, the East is sorted. The seedings are final, and now we just have to wait for the Play-In tournament to get the final Playoffs matchups. The Brooklyn Nets, despite losing Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving both, clinched a playoff berth as the 6th seed.

They did it while Ben Simmons was ruled out for the season with back soreness. Shaquille O’Neal loves picking on Ben Simmons, but this time, he might have echoed an advice for the Nets’ star through his IG stories.

Shaquille O’Neal shares what Kevin Garnett said for Ben Simmons

Recently, Kevin Garnett talked about Ben Simmons on his podcast KG Certified. The NBA legend tried sending a message for Ben Simmons, asking him to go find his roots again.

“I want you go back and find your roots. Go back and find why you love playing the game… There’s Melo, Cousins at home, Dwight. There’s n— at home that could be in the league. If your heart ain’t in it, it is what it is.”

Shaquille O’Neal saw this reel on his Instagram and shared it on his story.

Maybe Big Diesel is tired of bullying Simmons and realised it wasn’t working. From his words, he wants to see the Australian star to live up to his potential, and maybe this is his way of motivating him.

Shaq has bullied Ben Simmons a lot

We all know what happened with Shaq and Ben Simmons when he refused to play for the Sixers. After that, since he joined the Nets, Simmons was looking like a shell of himself, and that wasn’t something Shaquille O’Neal was okay with.

He mocked Simmons’ point-foul ratio, his points in the 2022-23 season, his being out because of a back issue, his lack of a jump shot, and so much more. In fact, Shaq even mocked the number of bathrooms the Aussie star has.

However, with his latest post, maybe it seems like Shaq has simmered down. Or maybe, O’Neal didn’t realise KG was giving advice and not mocking Simmons?

About the author

Raahib Singh

Raahib Singh

x-iconlinkedin-icon

Raahib Singh is an NBA Journalist and Content Strategist at The SportsRush. A Computer Science Engineer by qualification, Raahib's passion for sports drew him towards TSR. He started playing basketball at 14 and has been following the NBA since 2013. His entry into the basketball world perfectly coincided with Stephen Curry putting the league on notice. Having followed the league for a long time, he decided to use his knowledge to become a sportswriter with The SportsRush in 2020. Raahib loves to put up some shots in his spare time, watch Cricket, Formula 1, and/or read a nice thriller.

Read more from Raahib Singh

Share this article