“Shaquille O’Neal, you are a billionaire bro”: Kevin Durant brings up Shaq’s net worth in response to him accepting his jealousy of Rudy Gobert earning $250 million

Kevin Durant has been a long-time target of Charles Barkley and it looks like Shaquille O’Neal wants some parts of that action as well.

There has been a lot of back and forth between the NBA media and some of the big-name players in the league. Kevin Durant is one of the players who have never left anybody off the hook who has been his critique.

Earlier he used to use burner accounts for the purpose now he doesn’t bother. He goes after anyone and everyone who has something absurd to say about him or even other players, sometimes defending players who are not even his teammates for that matter.

The 4x scoring champ has been one of the best trash talkers on the players’ side when the media has some former players on their side who are tremendous at that skill like Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal.

Also read: “Steph Curry, Giannis, and LeBron James are the only superstars in the league!”: Shaquille O’Neal believes only a few of the $100 million players are classified as ‘superstars’

Kevin Durant responds to Shaquille O’Neal admitting he’s jealous of Rudy Gobert

A recent back and forth between the Brooklyn Nets forward and Chuck saw the latter questioning Durant’s greatness and saying that he wouldn’t be among the elites unless he is the “bus driver of a championship team, not just a passenger.”

The Slim Reaper then responded fiercely claiming the older players are just jealous because this generation makes much more money than they used to make, and so they go on hateful rants and analogies.

— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) June 20, 2022

The Big Aristotle loves to go against the Chuckster on the sets of Inside the NBA, but sided with him on this one and accepted the fact that they really are jealous of the salary differential. He didn’t disrespect KD by any means though, he went to his usual target, the Utah Jazz big man, Rudy Gobert. And Durant, being Durant, responded to that as well.

— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) June 28, 2022

Shaq is worth $400 million just to put it out there. And anyways they are not wrong to be jealous, though. Barkley just made around 40 million in salary in his playing career. Which is just around 70 million in today’s money. But Shaq made much more than that, he made 27 million in his highest salary year with Miami, and his total career earnings were close to 300 million.

Still, Gobert making 250 in 5-years, looking at the difference in the dominance of the players (even Chuck was more dominant than Rudy), it’s pretty sick to witness the change in dynamics of players getting that kind of money these days.

Also read: “Michael Jordan bet $100,000 on a game of rock-paper-scissors”: When the Bulls legend put a small piece of his $2.1 billion fortune at stake in a game of chance

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.

Read More