Shaquille O’Neal is one of those few retired athletes, who are active on social media. Shaq often uses facts or even memes as a medium of appreciating or criticising some player or team. This time, O’Neal used his Instagram to take a subtle shot at the lanky frames of the big men of today’s era – Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren.
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Shaquille O’Neal has often spoken about the disparity in the physicality between the big men from the older era and the big men of the modern era. A post on Instagram showcases a clear difference in the physicality between Shaquille O’Neal & Karl Malone and Victor Wembanyama & Chet Holmgren.
There can be several things that Shaq is implying through this social media activity. The TNT analyst could be lauding the modern big men for exploring a style of play that doesn’t only restrict them to the paint. However, the more obvious implication is that the Los Angeles Lakers legend is trolling the lanky frame of the two rookies.
Gone are the days when the big men would be restricted to play only in the paint. In today’s NBA, every team is in search of a Center who is a capable three-level scorer. While the big men from the previous era used to heavily rely on their physicality, the modern big man is capable of impacting the offence in numerous ways – playmaking and passing – other than scoring and rebounding.
Is Shaquille O’Neal a critic of Victor Wembanyama?
This isn’t the first time that Shaquille O’Neal has been a harsh critic of Victor Wembanyama. The French phenom has had some great performances this campaign. However, that hasn’t prevented Shaq from comparing Wemby to Bol Bol.
During the initial stages of the 2023-2024 season, during an episode of Inside the NBA, O’Neal was extremely serious when drawing similarities between the 1st pick of the 2023 Draft and Bol. Even though Charles Barkley came to Wemby’s defence, Shaq wasn’t ready to budge from his opinion.
Only a few weeks later, the Big Aristotle brought up this entire topic yet again. When asked about the comparisons O’Neal kept making between Wemby and Bol, he stuck true to his initial words. Reiterating what he previously claimed, Shaq stated that Bol didn’t get the recognition that Wembanyama was getting.
“You guys are acting like Wemby is the first 7-foot-5 player that dribble coast to coast, put it between his legs and shot a three [pointer],” O’Neal said. “[Wembanyama] is not. Bol Bol is the first. I never compared the two. I just said you guys act like you’ve never seen it before, but you have. You’ve seen Bol Bol do it.”
Wemby has been playing his socks off and proving all his naysayers wrong. Constantly putting up historic stat lines, the San Antonio Spurs big man is averaging 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks per game. Moving up to the first spot in the Rookie ladder, if Wemby keeps up his performances from the past few games, he’ll certainly win the Rookie of the Year honour over his rival – Chet Holmgren.
