Clearly, this is the year of beef, and even former athletes Shannon Sharpe and Shaquille O’Neal are sending shots at one another.
Their fallout began when Sharpe shared his views on O’Neal’s career on his “Night Cap” show. The topic of basketball GOATs came up, and Sharpe stated he could not view O’Neal as such.
“It’s hard for me to put somebody in the GOAT conversation with one MVP, regular season…We gonna take somebody with one regular season MVP and put him in front of people who got three, that got four, that got five,” Sharpe stated, later adding that if Shaq had his work ethic, he would have totaled 40,000 points throughout his career, also suggesting the retired ball player may be envious of those with multiple MVP’s. The former Los Angeles Lakers star totaled 28,596 points over his 19 years in the NBA.
O’Neal didn’t take kindly to these comments and took the time to set the record straight on Instagram.
“Here’s some click bait for you. If you ain’t ranked in the top ten in your profession, then you can’t speak on me. Don’t forget I know what you did to get where you at. Me jealous? Sounds like you jealous. I know you tryna stay relevant by gossiping on your podcast,“ Shaq wrote.
He later added several of his accolades, including his four championship rings, before dragging Sharpe for not being in the same category as him.
“To be quite frank, all this new success you got, you still under me. You don’t know my work ethic. But according [to you], I work less than you, but I’m worth more than you. Make it make sense. Love you too. If you need help making money, it’s better ways than gossiping,“ the 52-year-old wrote.
Sharpe responded to Shaq directly on a follow-up episode of “Night Cap,” clarifying his comments.
“I’ve never professed that I was as great as Shaq. But what I will say, I got what I got because I worked my a** off. Now, Shaq has been the one to say it, that he didn’t work as hard, he didn’t train as hard, he didn’t eat as well as he should have. Shaq is the one who anytime someone wins an MVP, he talks about how he should’ve been the MVP over Steve Nash,“ Sharpe told co-host Chad “OchoCinco“ Johnson.
