Shaquille O’Neal has a history of undermining Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert to drive home his points. He has used Gobert in the past to rant against NBA teams dishing out max contracts to undeserving stars. Recently, the Big Man shared a video on his Instagram stories, which dissected a clip of Gobert shooting three-pointers in practice to explain why the NBA is getting softer by the day.
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Rudy Gobert signed a staggering $205,000,000 five-year contract with the Utah Jazz in December of 2020. It may not seem like an extraordinary sum of money, especially considering the exorbitant amount spent by NBA teams in this year’s free agency. However, it was a lot of money at the time for a player who wasn’t even the first option on his team.
Therefore, Shaq didn’t hold back in roasting the French center for bagging a max deal despite putting up average numbers on the board. He brought up Gobert’s ‘$200 million contract’ frequently during NBA on TNT segments and podcast appearances to ridicule the 7’1 big man. It is noteworthy here that Shaq was also deemed overrated by his peers after the Los Angeles Lakers offered him an unprecedented seven-year $120 million deal in 1996. However, the Diesel soon shut down his detractors after bringing in back-to-back Championships for the LA side.
Shaquille O’Neal shares Rudy Gobert video explaining why the NBA is getting softer
Shaq recently shared a video on his Instagram stories from a creator named ogdabeast_sports. In the video, the creator showed a clip of Rudy Gobert practicing shooting threes in the gym to proclaim that the NBA is getting softer by the day. While centers in the past were expected to play bully ball in the paint, an elite rim-protector like Gobert is having to learn to shoot threes to adjust to the constraints of the new shooter-friendly league.
“Do you wanna know why this league and this era is soft? Because all the big men are beyond the arc trying to learn how to shoot the 3ball just to maintain relevancy, because their job would be taken by somebody who can do [just that]…He should be in the paint, one of the best defenders in this era in the post…this is disgusting to me,” the creator said.
It is certainly true that more and more centers are adopting the three-ball to expand their offensive arsenal. The leading centers of the league are all well-equipped to shoot threes when required. Some notable examples include Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Jaren Jackson Jr., among others.
Shaq was a terrible three-point shooter
As is quite evident from him sharing the video to his vast audience, Shaq is a huge proponent of big men dominating the paint. Even though he has expressed his fascination for the likes of Stephen Curry, the 51-year-old is still a center at heart. Therefore, it definitely pains him to see big men lining up beyond the arc to shoot from distance.
Shaq has often proclaimed himself to be the most dominant player ever for his rampage near the rim. However, he was an appalling shooter throughout his career, making only one three-pointer in his entire stint with the NBA. Therefore, a league where centers are expected to shoot more often with increasingly stricter guidelines on a physical style of play could seriously devalue Shaq’s legacy to posterity.
However, Shaq has maintained that he would have been successful in today’s NBA as well. His biggest argument to substantiate his claim is Greek superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo.
