March Madness is not for the faint of heart. It’s a massive tournament with 68 teams taking part, and even for the most die-hard fans, it tends to get a bit much at times. Shaquille O’Neal made it clear on his podcast last month that he had absolutely no interest in covering it this year from an analyst’s point of view.
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His main reason for that does seem pretty reasonable when we look at it. He simply said there are way too many teams to learn and figure out, and Shaq said he simply cannot be bothered to put in the extra hours to research and “do homework” on all the teams.
“You’re gonna be working, I’m not doing March Madness, ever,” he told his co-host Adam Lefkoe. “There’s too much homework. If I don’t know your name, I’m not looking it up,” he explained.
Unlike his Inside the NBA co-hosts Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith, Shaq isn’t going to sit and prepare for a tournament that spans the second half of the month. However, Barkley did not stop short of predicting the results of the March Madness Bracket, picking the Florida Gators to win.
Shaq is someone who would do his analysis depending on what he watches and likes. In an earlier episode, he admitted to watching the women’s game more than the men’s.
Last year, when the world was being lit up by Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Juju Watkins, Shaq admitted, “Well the boys suck, so I’m definitely following the girls. Dominating.”
Whatever his thoughts on the women’s game may be, his “if I gotta look your name up that mean you can’t play” sentiment has gotten Big Diesel into some hot water on the internet.
Social media users slam Shaquille O’Neal for lazy analysis
Shaq infamously commented on the Detroit Pistons earlier in March as well, claiming they were a boring team to watch and as a team that was 4 games below .500, they didn’t deserve media attention. The only problem? At that time, they were 7 games above .500 and playing some of the most exciting ball in the league.
In an attempt to salvage some pride, Shaq congratulating the Pistons for their resurgent season on the TNT Tuesday episode that followed, and even praised 2004 Finals MVP Chauncey Billups for the great job he was doing coaching them.
Therein lay the next problem—despite being a Pistons legend, Billups does not coach the team; JB Bickerstaff does. Billups plies his trade in Portland.
The internet was up in arms about this, and a lot of people brought back LeBron James’ statements on the current state of NBA media, claiming that the current crop of analysts don’t care about the game and would much rather drag down the players rather than build them up.
This statement of his drew so much attention that even the Pistons’ official X account took notice, and mocked Shaquille O’Neal. They posted a photo of their 2004 Finals victory, which came over Shaq and the Lakers, captioning it “Overlooked us in 2004, Overlooking us in 2025. Nothing New here.”
Not fans, not you, not me — heck, not even Shaq could have predicted that a few words would spark such a reaction.
