Shaquille O’Neal is pretty vocal man. We have been witnessing it from his playing days in the NBA to his transition to Inside the NBA. You can also see it in the content he posts on his social media channels. He isn’t afraid of controversies. The player-turned-analyst has always talked about the league becoming too soft and easy to play in the past 10 years or so. Now, he is advocating the arguments of players from 70 years ago being plumbers.
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It’s not like O’Neal has been disrespectful toward players from previous eras as he has been with today’s players. In fact, sometimes he even puts Wilt Chamberlain ahead of him as “the most dominant” because of their difference in the all-time scoring leaderboard. However, he went off the rails recently.
Shaquille O’Neal shares the controversial take on players from the 70s being plumbers
In a recent Instagram story of his, Shaquille O’Neal posted an extreme belief that disrespects the NBA players of the 50s. It suggests that players from 70 years ago cannot hold up their own against the modern players because they were just “plumbers”.
In the hilarious clip by the page “Fool Talks Sports” on Instagram, the narrator starts by arguing against the narrative that “NBA players in the 50s were plumbers” but concludes by saying that they actually were.
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Here’s “tragicpatek” sharing what Shaq posted on his IG via Twitter.
Shaq surprisingly echoes the sentiment that 50s NBA players plumbers pic.twitter.com/QgUf27SzQw
— tragicpatek (@tragicpatek) June 21, 2023
We wonder what might have led Shaq to change his stance because he was against JJ Redick when he said the same.
JJ Redick called the players from 1950s plumbers and Shaq opposed it
Last year, JJ Redick’s comments about Bob Cousy playing against ‘plumbers and firemen’ caught a lot of heat from former players including Jerry West, who is one of the strongest pillars of the NBA.
Even Shaq agreed with West and told JJ to shut up because he supposedly doesn’t have the G-14 classification to say so.
“Stop it. Jerry West was correct. JJ ain’t got enough G-14 Classifications to speak on the greats. And you can tell him I said that.” said O’Neal on Instagram.
By G-14 Shaq meant Redick hadn’t achieved enough in his career to disrespect the legends. Looks like O’Neal finds himself classified enough to walk back on his takes and disrespect any basketball player, irrespective of the era.
