“I throw jabs, people think it’s hate, but I’m just challenging hate” Shaquille O’Neal reveals he has immense respect for 3xDPOY Rudy Gobert

“I throw jabs, people think it’s hate, but I’m just challenging hate” Shaquille O’Neal reveals he has immense respect for 3xDPOY Rudy Gobert

Shaquille O'Neal

Shaquille O’Neal might arguably be one of the most dominant centers in the history of the NBA. He was a perfect mix of a dominant scoring big man and defensive player who could stop anybody within the paint. Shaq finished off his career as one of the top all-time scorers and shot blockers. Many players of his day now respect Shaq for what he brought to the game through his talent.

Shaquille O'Neal
Shaquille O’Neal

Nowadays, the four-time champion takes his time to mentor today’s players through his words on the show Inside the NBA. He is known for being excruciatingly brutal with his takes on the league today and how it has changed. However, his experience and legendary status are more than enough to validate his opinions.

Rudy Gobert fires at Shaq for allegedly belittling him

Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant
Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant

Now that have established how amazing prime Shaquille O’Neal was even while playing alongside other superstars, the comparisons between all-time greats like himself and modern-day ballers boggle the minds of debaters. In a recent episode of his podcast, guest Spice Adams suggested that former defensive player of the year, Rudy Gobert would not let the Big Diesel score more than 12-points

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Shaq has always been confident in his game and in response to that claim, he said that Gobert will only be able to hold him to 12-points for the first third minutes if they were to battle it one on one. The Frenchman commented on the Bleacher Report’s post saying, “I would lock his ass up.” The Utah Jazz player has been arguably the best defensive center in the league for a while now.

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Shaq responds to Rudy Gobert’s comments claiming he has no beef

Rudy Gobert
Rudy Gobert

In a recent interview, it was revealed that the former DPOY did not mean to offend Shaquille O’Neal nor did he wish to have beef with the legend. Rudy also said he believes in his game and thinks he can hold O’Neal on defense. He said being confident is important or there would not be a chance of achieving the unthinkable.

Shaq responded to him saying, “You know what Rudy let me tell you something, I respect that.” He further said, “So a lot of times when I throw jabs people think it’s hate or whatever, but I’m just challenging ‘em. It’s my job to push the needle and I know how to push the needle… Like I said, Donovan Mitchell is a really good player. That don’t even sound right to me. It should be, Donovan Mitchell is one of the greatest guards ever.”

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