OAKLAND, Calif. — For years, JaVale McGee has privately stewed as Shaquille O’Neal has routinely roasted him during his Shaqtin’ A Fool segments on NBA TV and TNT, highlighting McGee’s bloopers.
OAKLAND, Calif. — For years, JaVale McGee has privately stewed as Shaquille O’Neal has routinely roasted him during his Shaqtin’ A Fool segments on NBA TV and TNT, highlighting McGee’s bloopers.
This season, McGee has publicly responded, letting his displeasure about Shaq’s clowning known in several interviews. The rift between the two boiled over on Thursday night.
O’Neal dedicated his entire segment on TNT’s Inside the NBA to a career reel of McGee bloopers. McGee responded to it on Twitter and then Shaq responded back, calling McGee a “bum” several times and saying he was going to “smack the s—- out yo bum a—.”
It has reached the point that the Warriors have privately reached out to Turner Sports to try to get Shaq to cut out his persistent mocking, as first reported by ESPN. After Friday’s practice, two of the biggest, most influential Warriors figures — Kevin Durant and Steve Kerr — strongly came to McGee’s defense, saying the segment has unfairly and incorrectly labeled McGee as unintelligent and affected his career.
“JaVale works extremely hard, has come in here and done extremely well as a player,” Durant said. “He only wants to be respected like anybody else. I understand that Shaq works for a company that wants him to do that type of stuff, make fun of players. It’s cool, it’s funny, but when you keep doing it time and time and time again and a guy actually disagrees with you and you threaten him, I didn’t know cops could threaten civilians like that.”
The cop remark wasn’t just strange wording. It was a pointed reference. Shaq has been sworn in as an official police officer in Florida.
“It’s definitely childish,” Durant said. “But that’s what they want from these stars and these retired players is to feud with the guy who’s playing now and make arguments and disagreements. If I was JaVale, I’d feel the same way. It’s childish.”
There’s a feeling within the Warriors that Shaq’s persistent, public badgering of McGee has jaded his reputation around the league and affected both his career and his pocketbook.
“You think about JaVale’s career where you’re in this position where someone on national TV is making fun of you night after night,” Kerr said. “It’s not the greatest thing for your reputation. I can tell you that I had a preconceived notion of JaVale before I got here that turned out to be false. A lot of that is what goes on with Shaqtin’ A Fool. It’s unfortunate. It’s kind of the way this whole thing has played out. It’s too bad.”
“It has (lost him money),” Durant said.
Durant went on to take some personal jabs at O’Neal, which caused a national stir.
“Shaq wants to make a joke about it,” Durant said. “But if it was him in that position, he’d feel the same way. We wouldn’t call him a bum and all this because he’s such a great player obviously. But still, everybody can’t be Shaq. (JaVale)’s trying to make his money and enjoy the game of basketball and the perception of him now is that he’s a dumb player because he makes mistakes out there on the court. Shaq was a sh—— free throw shooter, he missed dunks, he airballed free throws, he couldn’t shoot outside the paint. He was bigger than everyone, didn’t have no skill, bigger and stronger than everyone. Still a great player, but you had your flaws as a player and you played on five or six teams, too. So it’s not like he’s just some perfect center. You had your flaws, too. I didn’t know cops could go on Twitter and threaten civilians like that. I’m glad JaVale challenged him.”
This isn’t the first time the Warriors have had a war of words with the TNT crew. Charles Barkley has regularly criticized Golden State’s style of play, angering the team and their fans. After Shaq’s segment roasting McGee on Thursday night, Barkley laughed about it and told Shaq: “I want to thank you for getting me off the Golden State hit list. They’re going to hate you more than they hate me.”
Later on Friday, Shaq responded to Durant’s comments, tweeting directly at the Warrior star to “mind yo business this ain’t for you” and “I understand you sticking up for your teammate that’s cool but your boy JaVale McGee is still a bum, he started it I’ma finish it.”