Shaquille O’Neal continues to take potshots at Rudy Gobert.
O’Neal hosted his former Warmth teammate, Udonis Haslem, on his “Large” podcast this week, and requested him to confirm what he would’ve carried out to Gobert within the locker room had the 2 ever been on the identical crew.
“If he was on my crew, what would I’ve carried out to him?” O’Neal requested Haslem.
Haslem, after in search of clarification, mentioned matter-of-factly that O’Neal would have put his palms on Gobert.
Nonetheless, O’Neal mentioned that razzing teammates into motion was a motivational tactic.
“It could sound private, but it surely’s motivation. That’s all it’s. It was simply motivation,” O’Neal acknowledged.
Haslem affirmed that O’Neal giving him arduous love wound up being a blessing for him.
“Having any individual such as you, day by day in my 12 months, and having an expectation of me … when you may have an amazing participant that has an expectation and a perception in you, then that simply helps you consider in your self. It helps you may have the identical expectations of your self,” Haslem mentioned.
“You doing that for me, helped me be the teammate that I used to be. I knew you had these expectations of me and I didn’t wish to allow you to down.”
Gobert has been one of many extra polarizing gamers within the league, as he has been in a public spat for years with the Warriors’ Draymond Inexperienced.
“After I made the feedback about Rudy Gobert, folks suppose it’s private. Yeah, it’s private for guys like David Robinson, who solely made $116 million,” Shaq mentioned. Fabulous f–king participant… Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Most he ever made was $3 million… Patrick Ewing made $112 million. Invoice Russell, $100,000. Simply play arduous. You’re making $250 million. Play arduous. That’s all I’m saying.”
O’Neal and Gobert, now a middle on the Timberwolves, have been sniping backwards and forwards for a number of years.
In 2021, when Gobert signed a $205 million contract with the Jazz, O’Neal took a dig at Gobert’s pedestrian scoring output.
“I’m not gonna hate, however this ought to be an inspiration to all of the little youngsters on the market,” O’Neal mentioned on the time. “You common 11 factors within the NBA, you may get $200 million.
“He’s received an amazing agent, and I’m glad for him and his household. With the brand new guidelines, you may have a pot of cash, you need to spend that cash. I’m glad for him, however it is a second for lots of children who suppose they will’t make it.”
The next 12 months, O’Neal opined that if Gobert, an elite defender, have been matched up with him, he would “again his little skinny ass up below the rim.”
“I’d lock his ass up,” Gobert responded in a touch upon Instagram.
Final 12 months, when Inexperienced put Gobert in a headlock, O’Neal defended the maneuver.
“I don’t prefer to be a hypocrite of the state of affairs, I’d have did the identical factor,” O’Neal mentioned on the time. “You bought to stay up in your teammates.”
Earlier this month, Gobert responded to O’Neal calling him the worst participant of all-time.
“It’s unhappy to see somebody that has achieved as a lot as you probably did @SHAQ each in sport and enterprise nonetheless be triggered by one other man’s funds and accomplishments. I get the leisure half however in contrast to people, you don’t want that stuff to remain related,” Gobert wrote on X.
