Shaquille O'Neal fires back at Timberwolves' Rudy Gobert over 'triggered' claim

09/17/2024 05:30 PM

NBA Hall of Fame center Shaquille O’Neal may be great at a lot of things, but hiding his jealousy of Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert is not one of them. Over the years, O’Neal has consistently taken shots at the amount of money Gobert makes and incorrectly stated that his defensive impact is overrated despite every available metric as well as the eye test indicating the contrary.

O’Neal recently crowned Gobert the “WOAT,” or worst player of all time, to which Gobert responded by saying that it was sad to see a person of O’Neal’s accomplishments pocket watching.

Now, O’Neal is going back on the offensive during a recent appearance on The OG's Podcast W/ Udonis Haslem & Mike Miller.

“First of all I’m not triggered by your finances or your accomplishments,” said O’Neal, directly contradicting many statements he has made over the years.

“If you’re talking about your accomplishments of those little trophies you got that’s not enough when you making $250 million young man, it’s not enough. You want to impress me and UD and Mike….” said O’Neal.

“Win a championship and shut us the f–k up that’s how you shut us up,” added Haslem. “That’s it, win a championship and shut us the f—k up. That’s it, you got a young dog over there with you, so win a championship and everybody shut the f—k up.”

A bizarre feud

Rudy Gobert is far from the first new generation center that O’Neal has publicly displayed his jealousy of. The trend goes all the way back to the mid 2000s with then Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard, as O’Neal clashed with the big man over who was the true owner of the nickname “Superman,” among other things.

However, the accomplishments and contract earnings of Gobert appear to have struck a different sort of emotional chord with O’Neal, as the Hall of Famer continues to call out the Frenchmen unprompted on virtually every interview and podcast appearance he makes.

Meanwhile, Gobert continues to be the best defender of his generation, anchoring a Timberwolves defensive unit that was number one in the NBA a season ago and shocking the Denver Nuggets en route to the Western Conference Finals.

At this point, even if Gobert is indeed able to win a championship before his career is over, it would appear that such an event would only increase O’Neal’s bitterness as opposed to earning his respect.

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