Shaquille O’Neal had made some serious comments on LeBron James on his The Big Podcast. The big man believed that the players of today do not fear James like they once did in the era of Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. Of course, one can imagine the kind of uproar this would have caused.

But it seems like there might be another reason for the whole situation. And Gilbert Arenas brings that to the forefront. In the latest episode of Gil’s Arena, the ex-Warriors star says, “There’s more killers today that says, ‘we not gonna be scared of a dude. He gonna ‘have to guard me like I’mma gonna have to guard him.’ That just lets us know that mentally y’all was weak in that era then.”

Arenas gives the example of Kobe Bryant to clarify things a little bit. During the MJ era, everybody who was getting ready to face off against ‘His Airness’ was warned not to look him in the eye, because he would then ‘come for you.’ But not the ‘Black Mamba’. He walked straight up to him and looked him in the eye because he was cut out of the same cloth.

Moreover, joining ‘Shaq Fu’ in the podcast was Mario Chalmers who played with James while at the Heat and won two rings with him. Chalmers seems to agree with O’Neal, but he further clarified that it was because LeBron had been through so much that he wanted to be liked. And so, that’s what has led to the image of the Lakers superstar not having that fear factor about him.

Surprisingly, Kenyon Martin had thoughts along similar lines. He said that James can be competitive on-court but there’s more to someone than just his player persona. The kind of relationship he has with his teammates, the locker room chemistry, and so on. In short, the ‘Akron Hammer’ was “a likable guy, a likable teammate”.

Interestingly though, this isn’t the first time they have had this conversation, albeit with a different reaction.

Arenas had already cleared the air over LeBron James fear factor

Exactly one year ago, on a March episode, Gil, Josiah Johnson, and Brandon Jennings got together to discuss what, once again, Chalmers said about LeBron James. The Heat guard had said that nobody feared LeBron like they did Jordan. When someone from that era talked about going up against the NBA legend, there was that fear in their eyes. And that’s something you couldn’t find today with Bron.

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Funny enough, Arenas at the time, seemed to somewhat agree with Chalmers.“It’s correct … The fear comes from what that person’s capability is as an offensive player,” he said. “Guys who have the ability to score 30 to damn 70 points, they’re feared. LeBron James was an all-around player. Even though he gave you 40, it wasn’t the same 40 like an Allen Iverson or a Kobe or Michael Jordan.”

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But he did point out that simply because players didn’t fear LeBron James doesn’t take away his greatness. The man had made history by being the first-ever NBA player to score 40,000!

What do you think of Arenas’ remarks? Were the players in the MJ era mentally weak? Or is there some truth to Shaq’s claims? Let us know your thoughts below!