Besides a myriad of accolades held by Shaquille O’Neal, the famous G14 classification is often the talk of the town. It is a fictitious title that the self-proclaimed leader of the Big Man Alliance gave himself and other legends like him. He allegedly uses it to undermine the opinions of others about the sport, including his TNT running mate Charles Barkley. However, this time the target was a fellow analyst Shannon Sharpe.
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The entire troupe of the G14 classification comes from the movie ‘Rush Hour’. The 1998 American buddy action comedy film directed by Brett Ratner started the entire fiasco as the movie’s main lead, Agent Carter (played by Chris Tucker), is assigned a fictitious case to keep the trouble-making agent off the main issue.
The fictitious case also came with a fictitious clearance level, called “G14”. While it is based on comedy and fiction, O’Neal has applied the same to his everyday lingo, and in a serious manner.
Shaq recently pulled out the usage of the word during his beef with NFL legend Shannon Sharpe after the former tight end called him out for his antics while presenting the 2023-24 MVP award to Nikola Jokic. Addressing Sharpe’s allegations of O’Neal being “jealous” and “lazy”, the former Lakers legend said,
“Not enough G14 classification to speak to me.”
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While some might believe that he recently started using the word for comedic effect, the truth is that O’Neal’s “G14” shenanigans have been underway for some time now. In 2017, Shaq even extended the same treatment to Kevin Durant after the former Warriors forward clapped back at him for mistreating the team’s then-big man, JaVale McGee.
Durant, who asserted that Shaq knew nothing about the sport, was met with stern words, as Shaq replied,
“KD doesn’t have G-14 classification…He can’t talk to me like that. He may think he does, and he’s sticking up for his teammate. He’s a great player, but you ain’t in the club yet. You’re on the outside, in line with [Charles] Barkley, [Karl] Malone, and [John] Stockton. You’re not in the club with me and those [championship] guys.”
It is nothing more than a toll that Shaq has seemed to weaponize against less successful members of the NBA community. While he undoubtedly has vast knowledge and experience surrounding the sport, his superiority complex and borderline narcissistic tendencies have put Big Diesel in a bad light.
Not only does he fair poorly with criticism, but he seems to have little room for differing thoughts and opinions, especially if they come from players, who are ringless or less successful than him.
