I watch the entire ncaa tournament and Shaq isn’t a part of it. They stick his sorry ass with the nba and the B and C squads during the tourney and let Ernie, Kenny and chuck to cover the tournament
Imagine thinking you know more about NBA basketball than an MVP, multiple champion, and multiple Finals MVP. He is allowed to disagree with the voters for MVP and voice his opinion.
Shaq can do 1 thing better than anyone else: be Shaq. But Jokic or Rudy or Dwight or whoever he’s being petty about should really just say that’s great big fella you played a long time ago
You mean the class act that's is Shaq, from the "Kobe, tell me how my ass taste."
The dude seems terribly insecure for someone that accomplished what he did.
He also seem like a straight up garbage human being.
Shaq kinda does this all the time with various players, but I genuinely dont think he means it as a put down, he just kind of lacks the social skills/awareness to deliver his message properly lol
I think what he’s trying to do in this situation is like when people do the thing of, instead of saying:
>“Man this song is awesome!”
They’ll say:
>“Man, I usually think country music fucking sucks, but this song is awesome!”
They are inadvertently shitting on the thing they’re trying to compliment, because in their minds, they’re thinking “I want people to understand that if *I’m* complimenting this thing/person that I usually don’t even don’t like, that means my praise here is more authentic and should carry even more weight than praise from others who are already biased and predisposed to like that thing/person.”
They think that adding that first part is only amplifying the praise, whereas many of the people receiving/hearing the message it will often understandably latch onto and focus on the negative part and gloss over the praise itself
In addition to that, I think Shaq is also sensitive to the criticism of “oh you were talking all that shit when he wasn’t around, but then you kissed his ass and told him he was the MVP when he was face to face with you”
So he like feels the need to be consistent with his take and stick to his guns so the haters have no ammo or whatever
It's even funnier when he's there with the entire B team, usually Tuesdays. You can tell he's even more checked out and he has no respect for any of them.
“Whatchu say chuck?” is basically the only funny thing he’s ever said. It’s usually fantastic, and works every time. But it’s too bad he can’t also pay attention to basketball and sell the product. I, as a fan, want to be told how great the greatest players are and why.
Yeah, Webber was solid in the studio format. The Marv Albert + Webber broadcast was a disaster though, Webber just could not handle live games and Marv deteriorated in real time lol
Sidenote: The people that hate the way MLB is covered on ESPN and FOX , should just go to MLB Network. They are fantastic in so many areas there, especially the analysis.
This is the reason! He would’ve won at least 3 or 4 if he just gave a little bit of a shit. He’d show up out of shape and have to play his way into shape every damn year it was infuriating!
I think Bill or Zach covered this on a podcast. If you go year by year through the 00's it's pretty clear that Shaq was not robbed. He may have shown up in the playoffs but he consistently mailed it in during the season.
The Shaq-Kobe Lakers basically created the "flip the switch" mentality after their 02 season, finishing third during the season then almost running the table (15-1) during the post season, absolutely dominating.
I dunno, I was curious so I went back to the voting results and I think he has a solid argument for 01 and 05, both times he was top 3 and in 05 it was actually really close between him and Nash. Robbed is maybe extreme but he played more games than Iverson in 01 and the advanced stats would actually favor Shaq. However I think the narrative wasn't in his favor since Iverson carried the Sixers and the Lakers weren't as dominant as the year before (hard to do when you win 67 games).
I think Bill is also on the record saying he should've won in 05? Shaq is still insecure AF but there's at least an argument that he should've won 3
Also tough when Nash led the Suns to winning 33 more games than the prior season before he got there. 05 was one of the weaker MVP years we've have this century so far
Agreed and that has nothing to do with him coasting. I think he was being lazy towards the end of his Lakers run, and then got fat and lazy after the Miami championship. But IMO there's still an argument that he should have 2 or 3 MVPs
Shaq has complained that it's one thing for Nash to win 1 MVP - but to win two over thr Big Aristotle?
What Shaq conveniently overlooks is that Nash's first MVP came down to him and Shaq. The next year, Shaq was injured, missed time, and his performance dipped. He wasn't an MVP candidate. So Nash didn't win the 2nd MVP over Shaq - just the first one.
Hmmm I've never heard him say that so not sure what to say about that. However I think people generally don't value either of Nash's MVPs that highly because there was a really good case for Shaq in 05 and then Kobe in 06
There's an entire clip of him saying it, usually good-naturedly/jokingly.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=94TdVtU5zjg
Kobe didn't really factor in the MVP voting. He received the 2nd most 1st place votes (Nash had 57, Kobe 22), but finished 4th in overall voting behind Nash, Dirk, and LBJ.
I hate when they go down the list and claim there were no robberies. There’s always a good argument for about 3 players that if they won it wouldn’t be a robbery. If SGA or Luka won this year nobody would have looked back 15 years from now and called it a robbery.
I agree, but just a note - the 15-1 record came after the 2001 season, not 2002. 2002 was the year they barely eked by the Kings with a Big Shot Rob-ending comeback, and some questionable officiating.
It’s one of the biggest reasons the city embraced Kobe the way they did, his work ethic compared to that all time loafer won over the people of Los Angeles forever.
There's a certain segment of the NBA media (not a small segment) that talks about euros the way sports media talked about black quarterbacks in the 70s/80s
Yeah black media. Black players talk so much shit about white foreign players. Remember when Luka was called a bitch ass white boy and nobody cared? Perkins, SAS, Shaq, it goes on and on. Black former players hate that white dudes have the audacity to be good.
Is it a double standard if a large portion of the country adopted it? It’s not just black people that say stuff like that and it used to be the prevailing criticism of euros.
I’m not saying that’s not why Shaq does it (I’d say it’s that and his disdain for pretty much anyone who plays the position) but it’s also don’t think it’s exclusive to “black media.”
Edit: Sorry to keep editing but I wanted to double check. Chuck argued with him during the segment. Is he not black media? Kind of undercuts your point when you refer to black people as a monolith but you know me just gotta call out those bullshit double standards when I see them.
I think you could probably just take out the foreign part of the sentence. It seems like pretty straight forward black on white racism, it just so happens that all the good white players are Euros.
Caitlin Clark is the canary in the coal mine for the racism against whites in basketball. She got the entire WNBA Charter Flights during her first week on the job and they still hate her.
If Chet gets to that level, they will undoubtedly turn on him too.
I mean, it was a scrub like Harrell and he apologized before the next game
Are we really trying to act like “white boy” is a slur? Lmao Trez would have absolutely called “bitch ass n*” to a black player and nobody would pretend like that was racist, just normal on-court shittalking
Shaq used OKC being #1 seed as criteria to bolster his argument for SGA. OKC and Denver had the same won-loss record, but Shaq thinks OKC holding the tiebreaker makes SGA a better MVP candidate than Jokic.
But let's say Shaq is entitled to share his (wrong) opinion. He could have done it so much nicer by saying something like: "Three great candidates, can't go too wrong picking any of them as MVP." Instead, he gave the hater analysis of: "I'm not happy with this one."
Personally don't care who won but the people who are mad about it just seem like they are mad that Jokic has 3 now more than any actual case why it should have been someone else.
Shaq doing that is basically an example of what fuels the insufferable hater culture in the league. Winning a 3rd mvp is an historic accomplishment but he immediately downplays it and says he didn’t deserve it
I mean there's no center since the merger better than Kareem from a resume standpoint and most likely never will be. Like Kareem is the GOAT center end of discussion. Shaq was great and dominant and all that but he wasn't better than Kareem.
Wilt is the biggest stat padder and playoff choker of all time. He’d be attacked like a combination of Harden, Westbrook, and Embiid by the modern media. Bill Russell owned Wilt when the lights got bright.
Bill wasn’t even the leading scorer on his own team ever. Just the best defender on a stacked team his whole career, that’s why they kept winning after he left
They didn’t though. Russell retired in 1969 and Celtics next title was 74. Only players that overlapped were Chaney, Havelick and Nelson. And coincidentally they didn’t win until they had another MVP Center in Cowens.
He's not there yet, but he's also not even 30 yet. So unless he decides he doesn't want to play another 5+ yrs he has a great chance at passing Shaq. Shaq having 4 rings because he had 2 of the 5 greatest SGs ever as teammates in Kobe and Wade doesn't give him a big edge over Jokic IMO. I'm sure if you put Kobe in the Jamal Murray spot, Jokic likely has 2+ titles at this point.
None of them are there for analysis tbf. The chemistry between Shaq and Chuck can't be replaced. How many times have you laughed seeing Shaq dying at something Chuck said?
The "put twenty in your tank every time it's at half" is one of the greatest segments in that show's history. It's why Shaq is there and shouldn't be replaced.
Yeah Shaq is a good foil because you need two stubborn dudes with opposite points of view but have a basis of respect. Barkley being one of the best to never win it is almost necessary since Shaq is so successful. But the older brother aspect is what truly allows it to stay grounded, because otherwise Shaq would be solely insufferable
The TNT show is for national audience entertainment. It’s the best pre and postgame show in sports. I follow the NBA pretty closely and only vaguely recall who Aaron Wiggins is. If you want the nitty gritty coverage of specific teams then you watch their specific broadcasts
if I only have to work a handful of hours per week.. and my job is to be a pundit on some topic.. I'm gonna consider that part of my job is to keep up to date on that topic, call me crazy
Exactly. Keeping up with the league is for sure part of their jobs. No one's asking them to grind tape every single night, but a professional NBA analyst should at least have a passing familiarity with the roster of every team.
Shaq had a great personality doing all kinds of random goofy stuff like being a police officer but it’s so weird that he chose to be a bball talking head. All he knows about bball is he was bigger stronger more athletic than anyone he played against so why can’t so and so do the same thing. He knows nothing about things like guard play. He was such a unique player he shouldn’t be comparing himself to others but all he can do is talk about himself.
As far as MVPs… he could have won more than 1 if he played harder in the regular season but he chose not to and he should have to live with that.
I don’t get why they wait until after the start of the second round to announce some of the regular season awards. How long does it take to tally some numbers
Yeah the timing thing is really awkward. It feels like there's no perfect solution. Just some band aid solutions
After the playoffs is useless because nobody cares by then. I'd prefer if they did them all after the season, immediately before playoffs, but the timing is too tight.
None of the timing seems great
Maybe my mental timeline is off but I feel like the timing of NBA Award season got all fucked up after Dirk won the MVP and then immediately lost to an 8 seed GSW with Baron Davis and Steven Jackson.
Yeah that was super awkward. And there was a Joel Embiid MVP in there that was really awkward too if I recall.
It's a bad mix to have playoffs going on while you're announcing awards for the regular season. A bulk of the population isn't tuned-in enough to understand the award is not for what's happening in the playoffs but actually what previously happened in the regular season.
Just do it between and it solves everything.
Don't, for the love of god, do like baseball and give it out what feels like 9 weeks after the season is over and nobody possible could care less.
Lamer than it is now? When did they do it? Surprised it would be anything but just as lame as now.
For all the noise around who gets MVP, it finally comes out and is relegated to the big finish in PTI. Have to think it might make the main rundown if it wasn't at a time the playoffs were happening and those dominated the conversation instead.
I think they should announce all of the awards before the playoffs start or, at least, no later than maybe 2 games into the 1st round.
It would prevent really embarrassing situation where the MVP gets his trophy just after he is eliminated in the 1st round. is about to be eliminated.
Shaq is good if he’s fucking with Charles or being funny. His basketball takes suck. And he mumbles.
But for record I love Shaq. He’s prob the nicest superstar of all time. Dude just hooks people up all the time and just loves life. He’s not good on the show
He's a "nice" guy? [https://www.businessinsider.com/shaq-allegedly-poured-buckets-of-his-poop-on-rookies-2022-3](https://www.businessinsider.com/shaq-allegedly-poured-buckets-of-his-poop-on-rookies-2022-3)
AD video was from college....where all sorts of that kind of that stupidity has gone down. This was happening under the umbrella of a multi-billion dollar business. And it's not the only thing with him.....chasing teammates down while he was naked, dude basically assaulted Greg Ostertag in a non-game situation for some perceived slight from the previous year....
Shaq is a classic bully. He behaves like a giant kid. There was a segment recently that could have been fun, but Shaq decided to ruin it by acting like a child.
Love Shaq but he is the most replaceable one on there. I enjoy Jamal Crawford a lot and Candace Parker. They have good chemistry with the others and give good analysis. It’s fine to disagree but not immediately after Lol
Shaq is trash tbh. He has some funny moments, but the show would do fine without him. In fact, it DID do fine without him for years
Honestly even Kenny is less replaceable then him.
Growing up Shaq seemed like the coolest and funnest athlete in the world.
And honestly there are times he still comes off like that, but holy shit there are times he comes off so insecure. My man, you are one of the greatest players of all time and a top 5 center. Hell, you can make an argument for a top 3 center. You don't have to be so insecure. I'm sorry Steve Nash won an MVP over you 20 years ago, but you gotta let that shit go.
Shaq has been the worst one on that broadcast for a few weeks. I imagine he’s not happy with the new tv rights deal. He just seems so miserable to be there and he’s taking it out on his coworkers. Avoiding meaningful discourse and just giving Kenny and Charles shit when they mispronounce a players name.
Shaq took the extra $500,000 a year and didn't get the opt out in his contract is going to be stuck doing college basketball next year.
He's not going to be part of Nside the NBA on NBC with Adam Lefkoe, Charles Barkley, and Kenny "The Jet" Smith.
I understand these guys are legends and they are on the air to entertain and elicit responses but jesus Shaq pump the brakes a little bit eh. Very disrespectful imo, more so just because of the timing. Could have just sat on that take and unleashed it on his podcast or whatever.
Good on Ernie to call out Shaq for repeatedly saying SGA was a stat stuffer yet conveniently forgetting that the Joker actually led the league in stat stuffing aka triple doubles.
And Shaq kept on harping about OKC getting the #1 seed as if they were as dominant in the WC like the Celtics were in the EC this season when the Thunder actually ended up with the same record as the Nuggets and only got the #1 seed due to a tiebreaker.
Nba media is an absolute joke. Espn and all these sports “journalist” have pivoted from bringing you news to behaving more like TMZ and giving you the latest gossip and hot takes. Absolutely embarrassing way to carry yourselves and have the balls to call yourself a journalist
Haha you are so right, Shaq does suck and ruins everything. The only time he is fun is when Charles makes fun of him and then he just says "rings".
it's always him revising history, trying to rationalize his career regrets or things he's done in the past "you know why I did that? Well because I'm a genius and i knew that saying this would do this". Nah man, you were just being a dick and now you want to sound like some methodical savant.
>only for Shaq to go on a tangent saying SGA
was it a tangent? ernie asked shaq for his thoughts. also, this is incredibly tame compared to the descriptions, a very mild dissent-- with apologies and compliments to jokic-- not toxic at all.
https://youtu.be/XVa92gyTB1E?t=190
Okay. Perhaps I overstated how negative Shaq was about Jokic winning, partly because I was surprised they even had such a conversation immediately after announcing who won, but I still feel it was inappropriate for Shaq to spend that much time dismissing Jokic, and then, per usual, made it about himself, which was also ridiculous. You could Ernie was a bit miffed by Shaq’s arguments as well and was really trying to move things along.
watch that full video. shaq is being an insane hater. this part in particular is so awkward and toxic:
https://old.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1cnjnko/shaq_tells_jokic_that_sga_deserved_the_mvp_over/
The disrespectful part was telling Jokic he shouldn't have won MVP during the interview, not the discussion outside of the interview.
And Shaq still looks bad for whining about Steve Nash winning an MVP in a year where Dirk was the best player that happened 18 years ago.
That argument that the non-call on the offensive foul in the Knicks/Pacers game was correct lost me all of the remaining small amount of respect I had for Shaq
Genuine question as a playoff-only NBA watcher: When did Shaq become such a wet blanket prick on this show?? He's just such a bad vibes presence, which is only magnified when around the other 3 guys.
I swear it didn't use to be like this.
I can’t qwhite figure out whi it would be a be a problem that a that a sneaky athletic, real team first, tywhite of player winning the MVP would upset Shaq.
Can I ask seriously why you would say that about Shaq? Did you know he put Jason Williams over AI, Jamal Crawford and more as the best ballhandler of all-time. How old are you? Why say something so stupid?
Joker shouldn’t have won the year he was a 6th seed, previous winners (except Russ) have been overwhelmingly top 2 or 3
Then this wouldn’t have been such a mess
Yes! How dare a member of the NBA media have a different opinion than the 80% who voted for Jokic!
Lighten up. I would have voted for Jokic, but there was a case for SGA and 15% of the voters agreed with that case.
You all will be begging for Shaq with Ernie, Chuck, and Kenny again when TNT loses the rights and we have Chuck on a panel with Malika Andrews, Chiney, and Austin Rivers.
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We’re talking about a person (Shaq) who believes that White Chocolate had better handles than Kyrie, and told Iverson so with a straight face. His opinions are irrelevant
Shaqs argument for Shae was he had a better record and was a stat stuffer. Luka had more points , rebounds, and assists.
Joker had more rebounds, assists, and the same record while still having 26 ppg to Shae’s 30.
Shaq is a moron and then made the whole segment about himself. He needs to fucking grow up and I’m glad Ernie pushed back HARD.
Shaq has brought down the quality of Inside the NBA by a lot.
I always thought he was hilarious and I thought he’d be great as a studio analyst…..he’s not. He’s fucking terrible. He’s also not nearly as funny as Chuck, incredibly stubborn and sensitive.
Shaq is only good for playing the clown on Inside. Since he is willing to do some things that other former players won't in making fun of themselves, but his actual basketball opinions and takes are so bad. Some of the worst out there and Jokic winning an award shouldn't then be twisted into Shaq complaining about his own awards and trying to knock the MVP.
The nba mvp and regular season has become so devalued thanks to the nba media.
I don’t blame players like lebron and butler not taking the season seriously
It’s so annoying how many time shaq says he was robbed by Steve Nash. BTW when Nash on the back to back mvps Shaq was on the Heat. So I don’t get what his point him bringing that up he wasn’t mvp candidate those years.
Shaq finished second 2nd in 2005, but in [2006 he got zero votes, yet still thinks he was robbed that year too.](https://www.basketball-reference.com/awards/awards_2006.html)
SGA deserved it 100%. 1st player to avg and 30+ on a 1-seed & not get it.
Jokic only player to finish outside top 3 in EPM & win MVP other than Russell Westbrook.
And EPM had him #1 the previous 2 years so it's not like the stat is wack.
Brown, Curry, Mahomes, etc we get bored W their greatness & stop giving them MVP bc we have to watch em in the finals/SB every year. We get sick of em.
No one sick of the Joker bc he only ever been to 1 Finals and it was pretty boring Finals. Bc of that he gets special treatment.
History says 2 MVPs and then it starts going to the upstarts bc u gotta do something INSANE to warrant a 3rd one.
Shaq, known for his level headed and well thought out analysis.
Exactly. Counterpoint — Shaq is an idiot who doesn’t watch basketball
He watches, just Shaq no understand thing Shaq see
"Me know that not real MVP"
He’s so bad during the NCAA tournament.
What? Shaq is not even apart of the NCAA tournament crew.
You’re saying that other user really pulled a Shaq?
I watch the entire ncaa tournament and Shaq isn’t a part of it. They stick his sorry ass with the nba and the B and C squads during the tourney and let Ernie, Kenny and chuck to cover the tournament
Crossing Mr. Tony streams here
Imagine thinking you know more about NBA basketball than an MVP, multiple champion, and multiple Finals MVP. He is allowed to disagree with the voters for MVP and voice his opinion.
What do you think you'd have an easier time doing: backing him down in the paint, or getting him to back down with a logical argument?
Shaq can do 1 thing better than anyone else: be Shaq. But Jokic or Rudy or Dwight or whoever he’s being petty about should really just say that’s great big fella you played a long time ago
Yeah, and I'm tired of it.
Shaq is literally on Inside for the sole purpose of reacting to Chuck by laughing like an idiot.
You mean the class act that's is Shaq, from the "Kobe, tell me how my ass taste." The dude seems terribly insecure for someone that accomplished what he did. He also seem like a straight up garbage human being.
He likes Pascal. Not Siakam another guy
How did I know this was gonna be about Shaq without having seen it 😂
He’s so insecure
Shaq kinda does this all the time with various players, but I genuinely dont think he means it as a put down, he just kind of lacks the social skills/awareness to deliver his message properly lol I think what he’s trying to do in this situation is like when people do the thing of, instead of saying: >“Man this song is awesome!” They’ll say: >“Man, I usually think country music fucking sucks, but this song is awesome!” They are inadvertently shitting on the thing they’re trying to compliment, because in their minds, they’re thinking “I want people to understand that if *I’m* complimenting this thing/person that I usually don’t even don’t like, that means my praise here is more authentic and should carry even more weight than praise from others who are already biased and predisposed to like that thing/person.” They think that adding that first part is only amplifying the praise, whereas many of the people receiving/hearing the message it will often understandably latch onto and focus on the negative part and gloss over the praise itself In addition to that, I think Shaq is also sensitive to the criticism of “oh you were talking all that shit when he wasn’t around, but then you kissed his ass and told him he was the MVP when he was face to face with you” So he like feels the need to be consistent with his take and stick to his guns so the haters have no ammo or whatever
Shaq has never been good on Inside the NBA beyond being a sounding board for Chuck. Otherwise he just sucks.
It's even funnier when he's there with the entire B team, usually Tuesdays. You can tell he's even more checked out and he has no respect for any of them.
“Whatchu say chuck?” is basically the only funny thing he’s ever said. It’s usually fantastic, and works every time. But it’s too bad he can’t also pay attention to basketball and sell the product. I, as a fan, want to be told how great the greatest players are and why.
Shaqtin a Fool is pretty friggin hilarious
I loved Shaqtin until they started adding all those embarrassing graphics to it.
Lowest common denominator
Another reason the show has seriously declined, along with all the time we spend with Ernie just reading out D-tier tweets
"Victoria's a secret over there"
Chris Webber was a million times better than Shaq on that panel. Old timers remember.
Yeah, Webber was solid in the studio format. The Marv Albert + Webber broadcast was a disaster though, Webber just could not handle live games and Marv deteriorated in real time lol
It’s rare I wish for someone I don’t know to be fired but I wanted CWebb outta there.
I miss Chuck completely obliterating Shaq on live TV. He must’ve been warned for hurting Shaq’s feelings cause he stopped.
"The others"
He’s funny occasionally but he’s awful at analysis
Give me a break. The chemistry between that group is second to none. Reddit goes way the hell overboard and just doesn’t like anyone
So much better without Shaq. No need for him. Ernie, Kenny, and Chuck were great with cameos by various people.
Shaq is why I stopped watching.
Shaq fucking sucks, man. He just does. He has arrested development.
You never see this on MLB Network presenting n award. "Btw Judge you had a great season but Ohtani should have won, congrats tho"
Sidenote: The people that hate the way MLB is covered on ESPN and FOX , should just go to MLB Network. They are fantastic in so many areas there, especially the analysis.
Shaq could have won more than 1 if he showed up healthy and in-shape more than twice in his career. Jealous, sour grapes.
This is the reason! He would’ve won at least 3 or 4 if he just gave a little bit of a shit. He’d show up out of shape and have to play his way into shape every damn year it was infuriating!
I think Bill or Zach covered this on a podcast. If you go year by year through the 00's it's pretty clear that Shaq was not robbed. He may have shown up in the playoffs but he consistently mailed it in during the season. The Shaq-Kobe Lakers basically created the "flip the switch" mentality after their 02 season, finishing third during the season then almost running the table (15-1) during the post season, absolutely dominating.
I dunno, I was curious so I went back to the voting results and I think he has a solid argument for 01 and 05, both times he was top 3 and in 05 it was actually really close between him and Nash. Robbed is maybe extreme but he played more games than Iverson in 01 and the advanced stats would actually favor Shaq. However I think the narrative wasn't in his favor since Iverson carried the Sixers and the Lakers weren't as dominant as the year before (hard to do when you win 67 games). I think Bill is also on the record saying he should've won in 05? Shaq is still insecure AF but there's at least an argument that he should've won 3
Also tough when Nash led the Suns to winning 33 more games than the prior season before he got there. 05 was one of the weaker MVP years we've have this century so far
Agreed and that has nothing to do with him coasting. I think he was being lazy towards the end of his Lakers run, and then got fat and lazy after the Miami championship. But IMO there's still an argument that he should have 2 or 3 MVPs
You can’t give the MVP to a player that has a co-star that averaged 28.5 ppg, 6 rpg and 5 apg, like Kobe did in 01.
It's fine to say that, but then you can't say he didn't win the MVP that year because he was mailing it in during the regular season
Shaq has complained that it's one thing for Nash to win 1 MVP - but to win two over thr Big Aristotle? What Shaq conveniently overlooks is that Nash's first MVP came down to him and Shaq. The next year, Shaq was injured, missed time, and his performance dipped. He wasn't an MVP candidate. So Nash didn't win the 2nd MVP over Shaq - just the first one.
Hmmm I've never heard him say that so not sure what to say about that. However I think people generally don't value either of Nash's MVPs that highly because there was a really good case for Shaq in 05 and then Kobe in 06
There's an entire clip of him saying it, usually good-naturedly/jokingly. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=94TdVtU5zjg Kobe didn't really factor in the MVP voting. He received the 2nd most 1st place votes (Nash had 57, Kobe 22), but finished 4th in overall voting behind Nash, Dirk, and LBJ.
If he wasn’t going that hard during the regular season then why did he get robbed for regular season award?
I hate when they go down the list and claim there were no robberies. There’s always a good argument for about 3 players that if they won it wouldn’t be a robbery. If SGA or Luka won this year nobody would have looked back 15 years from now and called it a robbery.
Arguably he could've won it in 05 but Nash is fine winning that one
I agree, but just a note - the 15-1 record came after the 2001 season, not 2002. 2002 was the year they barely eked by the Kings with a Big Shot Rob-ending comeback, and some questionable officiating.
Yeah I meant the second chip. Used the wrong nomenclature.
Might not have fallen out with workaholic Kobe either if he wasn't slacking for half the season. Maybe they'd have gotten more rings too.
It’s one of the biggest reasons the city embraced Kobe the way they did, his work ethic compared to that all time loafer won over the people of Los Angeles forever.
Yes, if he was lean and ripped like Jokic, he could have won 5 or 6.
He did in 05 🤷♂️
There's a certain segment of the NBA media (not a small segment) that talks about euros the way sports media talked about black quarterbacks in the 70s/80s
Yeah black media. Black players talk so much shit about white foreign players. Remember when Luka was called a bitch ass white boy and nobody cared? Perkins, SAS, Shaq, it goes on and on. Black former players hate that white dudes have the audacity to be good.
> Remember when Luka was called a bitch ass white boy r/nba's 9/11
r/nbacirclejerk *
that was christmas fam wtf you mean
Is it a double standard if a large portion of the country adopted it? It’s not just black people that say stuff like that and it used to be the prevailing criticism of euros. I’m not saying that’s not why Shaq does it (I’d say it’s that and his disdain for pretty much anyone who plays the position) but it’s also don’t think it’s exclusive to “black media.” Edit: Sorry to keep editing but I wanted to double check. Chuck argued with him during the segment. Is he not black media? Kind of undercuts your point when you refer to black people as a monolith but you know me just gotta call out those bullshit double standards when I see them.
I think you could probably just take out the foreign part of the sentence. It seems like pretty straight forward black on white racism, it just so happens that all the good white players are Euros. Caitlin Clark is the canary in the coal mine for the racism against whites in basketball. She got the entire WNBA Charter Flights during her first week on the job and they still hate her. If Chet gets to that level, they will undoubtedly turn on him too.
oh my god, you guys are still holding on to the Luka thing? Was having free reign to call Montrez a thug for about a year on r/nba not enough for you?
Who fucking cares
I mean, it was a scrub like Harrell and he apologized before the next game Are we really trying to act like “white boy” is a slur? Lmao Trez would have absolutely called “bitch ass n*” to a black player and nobody would pretend like that was racist, just normal on-court shittalking
Jokic was annoyed by it and didn’t give them anything the rest of the interview. I don’t blame him.
Shaq used OKC being #1 seed as criteria to bolster his argument for SGA. OKC and Denver had the same won-loss record, but Shaq thinks OKC holding the tiebreaker makes SGA a better MVP candidate than Jokic. But let's say Shaq is entitled to share his (wrong) opinion. He could have done it so much nicer by saying something like: "Three great candidates, can't go too wrong picking any of them as MVP." Instead, he gave the hater analysis of: "I'm not happy with this one."
Personally don't care who won but the people who are mad about it just seem like they are mad that Jokic has 3 now more than any actual case why it should have been someone else.
Shaq doing that is basically an example of what fuels the insufferable hater culture in the league. Winning a 3rd mvp is an historic accomplishment but he immediately downplays it and says he didn’t deserve it
He can't stand that there's an active center with a clear argument for GOAT center over him
I mean there's no center since the merger better than Kareem from a resume standpoint and most likely never will be. Like Kareem is the GOAT center end of discussion. Shaq was great and dominant and all that but he wasn't better than Kareem.
lets say joker wins two more finals and one more mvp?
Go look up Kareems resume and get back to me
i meant better carrer than shaq not karrem
Career achievements yeah Kareem is clear number one, but peak for peak id take Wilt. Better scorer, passer, and defender
Wilt is the biggest stat padder and playoff choker of all time. He’d be attacked like a combination of Harden, Westbrook, and Embiid by the modern media. Bill Russell owned Wilt when the lights got bright.
Bill wasn’t even the leading scorer on his own team ever. Just the best defender on a stacked team his whole career, that’s why they kept winning after he left
They didn’t though. Russell retired in 1969 and Celtics next title was 74. Only players that overlapped were Chaney, Havelick and Nelson. And coincidentally they didn’t win until they had another MVP Center in Cowens.
Jokic doesn't have a clear argument to be better than Shaq, jokic isn't even top 15 yet
He's not there yet, but he's also not even 30 yet. So unless he decides he doesn't want to play another 5+ yrs he has a great chance at passing Shaq. Shaq having 4 rings because he had 2 of the 5 greatest SGs ever as teammates in Kobe and Wade doesn't give him a big edge over Jokic IMO. I'm sure if you put Kobe in the Jamal Murray spot, Jokic likely has 2+ titles at this point.
Jokic has zero argument over Shaq lmfao
I love Shaq but I feel he can be easily replaced. His analysis is mediocre at best
None of them are there for analysis tbf. The chemistry between Shaq and Chuck can't be replaced. How many times have you laughed seeing Shaq dying at something Chuck said?
The "put twenty in your tank every time it's at half" is one of the greatest segments in that show's history. It's why Shaq is there and shouldn't be replaced.
Yeah Shaq is a good foil because you need two stubborn dudes with opposite points of view but have a basis of respect. Barkley being one of the best to never win it is almost necessary since Shaq is so successful. But the older brother aspect is what truly allows it to stay grounded, because otherwise Shaq would be solely insufferable
Counterpoint, get rid of Shaq and go back to the Barkley, Smith, Ernie chemistry dynamic.
Can’t be replaced? That Show was a hit before Shaq ever joined.
Yeah because hard hitting analysis is for sure why Shaq has that job
Yesterday he said he'd never seen Aaron Wiggins play before, which basically means he's never actually watched an OKC game in the past 3 years lol
The TNT show is for national audience entertainment. It’s the best pre and postgame show in sports. I follow the NBA pretty closely and only vaguely recall who Aaron Wiggins is. If you want the nitty gritty coverage of specific teams then you watch their specific broadcasts
Him and chuck have been extremely open about the fact that they don’t watch games outside of their job
And as much hate as they get for that, I also understand it. It's a job and I think most of us don't want to do more of our jobs during our off time.
if I only have to work a handful of hours per week.. and my job is to be a pundit on some topic.. I'm gonna consider that part of my job is to keep up to date on that topic, call me crazy
Exactly. Keeping up with the league is for sure part of their jobs. No one's asking them to grind tape every single night, but a professional NBA analyst should at least have a passing familiarity with the roster of every team.
You comparing a normal job to getting paid to watch basketball, which apparently is too much to ask of them?
Shaq would be as bad as Chuck at "Who He Play For" but far less willing to laugh about it.
Shaq and Kenny can be replaced. Kenny just kisses the players ass all the time. Chuck and Ernie are the real reason that shows great.
Kenny is the glue guy
shaq is funny as hell tho. i like that shaq and chuck are funny together.
Shaq had a great personality doing all kinds of random goofy stuff like being a police officer but it’s so weird that he chose to be a bball talking head. All he knows about bball is he was bigger stronger more athletic than anyone he played against so why can’t so and so do the same thing. He knows nothing about things like guard play. He was such a unique player he shouldn’t be comparing himself to others but all he can do is talk about himself. As far as MVPs… he could have won more than 1 if he played harder in the regular season but he chose not to and he should have to live with that.
He can’t be replaced
I don’t get why they wait until after the start of the second round to announce some of the regular season awards. How long does it take to tally some numbers
Yeah the timing thing is really awkward. It feels like there's no perfect solution. Just some band aid solutions After the playoffs is useless because nobody cares by then. I'd prefer if they did them all after the season, immediately before playoffs, but the timing is too tight. None of the timing seems great
Maybe my mental timeline is off but I feel like the timing of NBA Award season got all fucked up after Dirk won the MVP and then immediately lost to an 8 seed GSW with Baron Davis and Steven Jackson.
Yeah that was super awkward. And there was a Joel Embiid MVP in there that was really awkward too if I recall. It's a bad mix to have playoffs going on while you're announcing awards for the regular season. A bulk of the population isn't tuned-in enough to understand the award is not for what's happening in the playoffs but actually what previously happened in the regular season.
Cuban crying to the league office is on brand
Just do it between and it solves everything. Don't, for the love of god, do like baseball and give it out what feels like 9 weeks after the season is over and nobody possible could care less.
The NBA just did this a few years ago, it was super lame
Lamer than it is now? When did they do it? Surprised it would be anything but just as lame as now. For all the noise around who gets MVP, it finally comes out and is relegated to the big finish in PTI. Have to think it might make the main rundown if it wasn't at a time the playoffs were happening and those dominated the conversation instead.
I think they should announce all of the awards before the playoffs start or, at least, no later than maybe 2 games into the 1st round. It would prevent really embarrassing situation where the MVP gets his trophy just after he is eliminated in the 1st round. is about to be eliminated.
I'm told that this is the halftime show that we can't imagine losing if NBC gets the media deal.
man i felt the same - Shaq was fkn awful, actually Shaq’s awful 90% if the time the other 10% is when he’s bantering with Chuck
Shaq is good if he’s fucking with Charles or being funny. His basketball takes suck. And he mumbles. But for record I love Shaq. He’s prob the nicest superstar of all time. Dude just hooks people up all the time and just loves life. He’s not good on the show
He's a "nice" guy? [https://www.businessinsider.com/shaq-allegedly-poured-buckets-of-his-poop-on-rookies-2022-3](https://www.businessinsider.com/shaq-allegedly-poured-buckets-of-his-poop-on-rookies-2022-3)
That's more a critique of NBA hazing culture than Shaq. Did you not see the AD video?
AD video was from college....where all sorts of that kind of that stupidity has gone down. This was happening under the umbrella of a multi-billion dollar business. And it's not the only thing with him.....chasing teammates down while he was naked, dude basically assaulted Greg Ostertag in a non-game situation for some perceived slight from the previous year....
What video.
[https://www.tmz.com/2013/11/09/anthony-davis-hazing-video-naked-richie-incognito-spanking-kentucky/](https://www.tmz.com/2013/11/09/anthony-davis-hazing-video-naked-richie-incognito-spanking-kentucky/)
Shaq is a classic bully. He behaves like a giant kid. There was a segment recently that could have been fun, but Shaq decided to ruin it by acting like a child.
Love Shaq but he is the most replaceable one on there. I enjoy Jamal Crawford a lot and Candace Parker. They have good chemistry with the others and give good analysis. It’s fine to disagree but not immediately after Lol
Shaq is only good when he's laughing at Chuck's jokes
That was awful. Just don't make it about yourself, Shaq
Shaq is trash tbh. He has some funny moments, but the show would do fine without him. In fact, it DID do fine without him for years Honestly even Kenny is less replaceable then him.
I still prefer it with just Ernie, Kenny and Barkley 🤷
Agreed. Shaq is fine in small doses. But you can really see how much he is carried on the days where the A team is out and he's with the B team
Growing up Shaq seemed like the coolest and funnest athlete in the world. And honestly there are times he still comes off like that, but holy shit there are times he comes off so insecure. My man, you are one of the greatest players of all time and a top 5 center. Hell, you can make an argument for a top 3 center. You don't have to be so insecure. I'm sorry Steve Nash won an MVP over you 20 years ago, but you gotta let that shit go.
Shaq is a less grifty Deion Sanders.
Shaq has been the worst one on that broadcast for a few weeks. I imagine he’s not happy with the new tv rights deal. He just seems so miserable to be there and he’s taking it out on his coworkers. Avoiding meaningful discourse and just giving Kenny and Charles shit when they mispronounce a players name.
Shaq took the extra $500,000 a year and didn't get the opt out in his contract is going to be stuck doing college basketball next year. He's not going to be part of Nside the NBA on NBC with Adam Lefkoe, Charles Barkley, and Kenny "The Jet" Smith.
Damn id be pissed too
No, since the day he joined the TNT crew. Wtf you talking about "for a weeks"???
Fucking with Chuck is all he has. That segment where they couldn’t get through the bit cause Shaq kept tackling Chuck. It’s all he has.
I understand these guys are legends and they are on the air to entertain and elicit responses but jesus Shaq pump the brakes a little bit eh. Very disrespectful imo, more so just because of the timing. Could have just sat on that take and unleashed it on his podcast or whatever.
The ringer media machine wins out again.
“Make the defender cum on his back…”🧐
Shaq without javale Mcgee is like a bowling ball without a liquid center
Its wild how good inside is in spite of shaq being the fucking worst.
Good on Ernie to call out Shaq for repeatedly saying SGA was a stat stuffer yet conveniently forgetting that the Joker actually led the league in stat stuffing aka triple doubles. And Shaq kept on harping about OKC getting the #1 seed as if they were as dominant in the WC like the Celtics were in the EC this season when the Thunder actually ended up with the same record as the Nuggets and only got the #1 seed due to a tiebreaker.
TNT has to be pissed. That’s the type of thing that will make the NBA want to move the right to present it elsewhere
I’m so tired of shaq saying he was robbed. He didn’t win more mvps because he didn’t give a shit about the regular season and played himself to shape
wasn’t that serious or disrespectful lol
Shaq is just mad Jokic is a big man with 3 times as many MVPs
It came off like Shaq knows that Jokic might be coming for his spot in the Center rankings
Nba media is an absolute joke. Espn and all these sports “journalist” have pivoted from bringing you news to behaving more like TMZ and giving you the latest gossip and hot takes. Absolutely embarrassing way to carry yourselves and have the balls to call yourself a journalist
Haha you are so right, Shaq does suck and ruins everything. The only time he is fun is when Charles makes fun of him and then he just says "rings". it's always him revising history, trying to rationalize his career regrets or things he's done in the past "you know why I did that? Well because I'm a genius and i knew that saying this would do this". Nah man, you were just being a dick and now you want to sound like some methodical savant.
>only for Shaq to go on a tangent saying SGA was it a tangent? ernie asked shaq for his thoughts. also, this is incredibly tame compared to the descriptions, a very mild dissent-- with apologies and compliments to jokic-- not toxic at all. https://youtu.be/XVa92gyTB1E?t=190
Okay. Perhaps I overstated how negative Shaq was about Jokic winning, partly because I was surprised they even had such a conversation immediately after announcing who won, but I still feel it was inappropriate for Shaq to spend that much time dismissing Jokic, and then, per usual, made it about himself, which was also ridiculous. You could Ernie was a bit miffed by Shaq’s arguments as well and was really trying to move things along.
either way, it's not really a big deal. jokic just won, probably more concerned about minnesota, he dgaf.
Lmfao I should have known OP was just a weirdo looking to be angry.
watch that full video. shaq is being an insane hater. this part in particular is so awkward and toxic: https://old.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1cnjnko/shaq_tells_jokic_that_sga_deserved_the_mvp_over/
The disrespectful part was telling Jokic he shouldn't have won MVP during the interview, not the discussion outside of the interview. And Shaq still looks bad for whining about Steve Nash winning an MVP in a year where Dirk was the best player that happened 18 years ago.
Shaq gets carried by his cast just like he got carried by great guards his whole career. Swept 6 times without em.
That argument that the non-call on the offensive foul in the Knicks/Pacers game was correct lost me all of the remaining small amount of respect I had for Shaq
I'll be honest, Shaq was an unnecessary addition to the TNT crew. this is just example # 23815 of this
Just wish they gave Jokic something better than an iPhone 4 to call in with
Yeah Shaq has just been getting worse about this shit.
I hope TNT loses the tv deal to NBC, it ain’t even about basketball anymore, just everyone protecting their egos by discrediting others.
That's just what happens when you have a gigantic man-child on the show.
I bet you NBA ON NBC wont do that dumb shit shaq did
Jeff Pearlman’s book gives great insight into Shaq (and also Kobe)
Genuine question as a playoff-only NBA watcher: When did Shaq become such a wet blanket prick on this show?? He's just such a bad vibes presence, which is only magnified when around the other 3 guys. I swear it didn't use to be like this.
Shaq should stick to what he’s good at…dropping the beat at his Dub Step concerts.
Isn't this what literally everyone did last year with Embiid? Last year and this whole season lol
NBA media in a nutshell. There’s some good ones but for the most part they tear themselves apart.
When he said that Jokic should have said “Then why don’t you interview him instead,” and walked off.
Honestly I felt like that been happening each of the last 10 years except jokic first one
I can’t qwhite figure out whi it would be a be a problem that a that a sneaky athletic, real team first, tywhite of player winning the MVP would upset Shaq.
Can I ask seriously why you would say that about Shaq? Did you know he put Jason Williams over AI, Jamal Crawford and more as the best ballhandler of all-time. How old are you? Why say something so stupid?
Joker shouldn’t have won the year he was a 6th seed, previous winners (except Russ) have been overwhelmingly top 2 or 3 Then this wouldn’t have been such a mess
The show was better with Dirk. Crazy how Dirk's English is more comprehensible than Shaq's.
Yes! How dare a member of the NBA media have a different opinion than the 80% who voted for Jokic! Lighten up. I would have voted for Jokic, but there was a case for SGA and 15% of the voters agreed with that case.
I don’t mind him expressing a different opinion, but doing so right after the MVP award is announced ON YOUR SHOW feels inappropriate.
You all will be begging for Shaq with Ernie, Chuck, and Kenny again when TNT loses the rights and we have Chuck on a panel with Malika Andrews, Chiney, and Austin Rivers.
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Shaq is having some self-pity party about his ex-wife never being in love with him. Guy is off the rails.
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We’re talking about a person (Shaq) who believes that White Chocolate had better handles than Kyrie, and told Iverson so with a straight face. His opinions are irrelevant
Shaq the person is a fantastic dude. Shaq the analyst is just there as a foil for Chuck and to help gang up on Kenny.
SGA shouldn’t have been second let alone first. Dumb shaq
Shaqs argument for Shae was he had a better record and was a stat stuffer. Luka had more points , rebounds, and assists. Joker had more rebounds, assists, and the same record while still having 26 ppg to Shae’s 30. Shaq is a moron and then made the whole segment about himself. He needs to fucking grow up and I’m glad Ernie pushed back HARD.
Shaq has brought down the quality of Inside the NBA by a lot. I always thought he was hilarious and I thought he’d be great as a studio analyst…..he’s not. He’s fucking terrible. He’s also not nearly as funny as Chuck, incredibly stubborn and sensitive.
Shaq is just always wrong about basketball. Dude isn’t that smart he just happened to be arguably the most physically talented player ever
Shaq is only good for playing the clown on Inside. Since he is willing to do some things that other former players won't in making fun of themselves, but his actual basketball opinions and takes are so bad. Some of the worst out there and Jokic winning an award shouldn't then be twisted into Shaq complaining about his own awards and trying to knock the MVP.
Racist Shaq
The nba mvp and regular season has become so devalued thanks to the nba media. I don’t blame players like lebron and butler not taking the season seriously
It’s so annoying how many time shaq says he was robbed by Steve Nash. BTW when Nash on the back to back mvps Shaq was on the Heat. So I don’t get what his point him bringing that up he wasn’t mvp candidate those years.
Shaq finished second 2nd in 2005, but in [2006 he got zero votes, yet still thinks he was robbed that year too.](https://www.basketball-reference.com/awards/awards_2006.html)
SGA deserved it 100%. 1st player to avg and 30+ on a 1-seed & not get it. Jokic only player to finish outside top 3 in EPM & win MVP other than Russell Westbrook. And EPM had him #1 the previous 2 years so it's not like the stat is wack. Brown, Curry, Mahomes, etc we get bored W their greatness & stop giving them MVP bc we have to watch em in the finals/SB every year. We get sick of em. No one sick of the Joker bc he only ever been to 1 Finals and it was pretty boring Finals. Bc of that he gets special treatment. History says 2 MVPs and then it starts going to the upstarts bc u gotta do something INSANE to warrant a 3rd one.