Shaquille O’Neal bizarrely congratulates wrong HC for Pistons success, a day after dismissing them on podcast

Inside the NBA panelist and NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal had a bizarre take on Detroit Pistons stellar season.

Shaquille O’Neal bizarrely congratulates wrong HC for Pistons success, a day after dismissing them on podcast

Shaquille O'Neal mistakes Chauncey Billups as Detroit Pistons HC instead of JB Bickerstaff

Fans of any sport first prefer to watch a game. Then there are many who listen to analysts talk about those games before and after it is over. When it comes to former greats of the game such as Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley, one expects them to have a novel approach to their analysis.

Charles Barkley off late has been receiving a lot of backlash for his constant criticism of the Los Angeles Lakers. He doubled down on his view and even had a few words after talks surrounding the franchise dominated ESPN.

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Shaquille O’Neal on the other hand, came under a lot of criticism for the way he compares any big man to him. His comments while talking to Nikola Jokic after he won his third league MVP award was another incident fans did not appreciate.

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He has his fair share of words while speaking on Inside the NBA. But he took it up a notch when he was speaking on his podcast, The Big Podcast with Shaq. When host Adam Lefkoe suggested that those who complain that the league is boring should watch the Detroit Piston, O’Neal interrupted him to say.

No, stop it, they’re boring too. You want to brag about a team that’s 32-26? That’s not success. The Detroit Pistons ain’t winning no f**king championship.

Shaquille O’Neal said

His NSFW rant went viral, and fans were not happy with the way he was dissing the Detroit Pistons. Admittedly, the young team are not championship material now. However, their brand of basketball is entertaining even though O’Neal dismissed them on the basis of their record.

Shaquille O’Neal then gets Pistons HC’s name wrong on live TV

This podcast clip was released a few hours before Shaquille O’Neal went on air on Tuesday’s edition of Inside the NBA. There while reviewing the Detroit Pistons win against the Washington Wizards, the Big Aristotle said this.

I like what Chauncey’s (Billups) doing. Those guys play hard.

Shaquille O’Neal said

He continued to talk about the way certain players on that team play basketball. O’Neal even admitted that some of them play in a way that he finds impressive. As soon as he said this, fellow Inside the NBA panel member and WNBA legend Candace Parker asked O’Neal to reconfirm who he thought was the head coach of the Pistons.

Surprisingly, the 53-year-old doubled down and said that Chauncey Billups was the head coach. To this, a hysterically laughing Parker and the rest of the panel told O’Neal that JB Bickerstaff was the head coach. The four-time champion admitted to his mistake, but then said, he does not watch Pistons games.

Shaquille O’Neal might have some past feelings about the Pistons

Understandably, the Detroit Pistons have surprised a lot of people with the way they are playing this season. Ever since winning the 2004 NBA title, they have been a shell of their former selves. Last season, their names were synonymous with losing streaks, even setting records on the way.

But there could be something else as to why Shaquille O’Neal does not watch Detroit Pistons basketball. That 2004 title winning series was against the big man and his Los Angeles Lakers. They had assembled a group of veteran stars and still could not overcome a team that had no stars.

In a true Davis vs Goliath story, the Detroit Pistons seemingly ended Shaquille O’Neal’s career with the Lakers. It could be that those ill feelings might have played their way. It is not known how he truly feels, and it has been more than two decades since that event. But these gaffes and rants, raise questions.

This comes at a time when LeBron James has started a stir by claiming that veteran media personnel are too critical about current generation players. The discourse on social media is on those lines as fans are pouncing on every opportunity to berate these older analysts.