Shaquille O’Neal has been around the NBA for almost the majority of his life. Drafted in 1992, Shaq was just 20 years old when he went to play for the Magic. Since then, Big Diesel played in the league for 19 seasons and has been an on-air analyst for TNT since retirement.
Advertisement
O’Neal is one of those people who don’t shy away from saying what they’re thinking. While it’s a much-appreciated quality, it often lands Big Aristotle in trouble. Since he works at TNT, O’Neal has to stay up to date with all the drama in the NBA.
Well, the latest one was Kyrie Irving demanding a trade away from the Nets. Days after demanding a trade, Irving was sent to Dallas to join Luka Doncic.
Official:
Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks.
Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, 2029 first-round pick and two second-round picks in 2027 and 2029 to the Brooklyn Nets.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 6, 2023
Shaquille O’Neal takes a shot at Kyrie Irving, once again
Over the course of his career, Shaq played for six different teams. He played for 19 seasons, and had six teams. On the other hand, Kyrie is playing his 12th season in the league, and is now in his 4th team. From the broad perspective, it doesn’t look like there is much of a difference, but apparently, Shaq feels like there is.
He reposted an Instagram post by Basketball Forever, calling out Kyrie for all his ‘capping’.
View this post on Instagram
Shaq posted the same on his Instagram Story.
Shaquille O’Neal calls out Kyrie Irving for all the hopping pic.twitter.com/IljnP8j0Lf
— Spam (@warriors4ly) February 7, 2023
Well, maybe it’s because Shaq was the ‘bus driver’ on Magic and Lakers, and played the prime of his career with those two teams. On the other hand, Kyrie hasn’t been the bus driver for any of the teams he’s played on.
Calling Kyrie for hopping when Shaq himself has had six teams is a little over the top, isn’t it?
Shaq had called out Kyrie for his anti-semantic views
Kyrie Irving has been on the receiving end of a lot of blastings. His controversial statements and actions often result in the same. However, we won’t scroll all the way back. Just earlier in the season, Shaq called out Kyrie for his anti-sematic views.
“When you’re as great at basketball as he is, people listen to you… It hurts me that we have to sit up here and talk about stuff that divides us. We have to sit up here and answer for what this idiot has done. I stand for equality of all people.”
“It hurts me sometimes when we have to sit up here and talk about stuff that divides the game.”
Shaq on Kyrie Irving pic.twitter.com/r3haGIj0U9
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) November 1, 2022
Sure, Shaq was justified in calling Kyrie an ‘idiot’ in this context. However, his recent story is a little over the edge.