“So I’m going with Golden State” said Shaquille O’Neal before the commencement of the Warriors-Timberwolves series, thereby sealing his prediction. However, this was before Stephen Curry sustained his hamstring injury, since the Lakers legend believed that there weren’t a lot of bodies to cover the 3-point leader. Since Steph became absent after Game 1 onwards, however, the tide turned in favor of Anthony Edwards and Co. The same tide also forced Shaq to switch his allegiance, as praise for the Warriors was all he could deliver recently.

By half-time of Game 5 between the Golden State Warriors and the Minnesota Timberwolves, the latter team was leading 62-47. It was a clear sign that this would be the last game for the Warriors in this ongoing tournament. This led to Shaq focusing more on his praise for the Wolves rather than the Bay Area squad, stating, “Expected Anthony Edwards to go up, but it doesn’t matter when you have Julius Randle and ‘Rudy Abdul Gobert’”. Yup, you heard that right.

Shaq really said “we’re changing his name, Rudy Abdul Gobert, he’s played well.” O’Neal further added, “Anthony Edwards is doing a good job sending the ball to the right places. I agree with Chuck, it’s over for the Warriors”.

Yikes! At least lay it a bit easy, sir.

In Shaq’s defense, Rudy Gobert and co had really kicked things up a notch in the recent game. The 4x Defensive Player of the Year scored 11 points in the first half through 5-5 field goals. Randle and Edwards delivered an additional 15 and 6 points, respectively, with the latter scoring an additional 6 points. According to reports, in 23 minutes of playtime, Rudy Gobert had an efficiency rating of +22. Defensive rebounds and dunks were his forte, which trickled down to benefit the Timberwolves as the squad looked to close out their series against the Timberwolves, and earn a spot in the Conference Finals for the 2nd consecutive year.

This praise was certainly a surprise, coming from Shaq. After all, if history is an indication, the former player hasn’t been the biggest fan of the defensive star.

Shaquille O’Neal once created a feud by calling Rudy Gobert the worst NBA player of all time: “can’t f****** play”

NBC Sports once called Shaquille O’Neal “a proud member of the “get off my lawn” generation of older players who don’t like the way the NBA game has evolved”. No matter how welcoming and wholesome the former player might look to his fans, Shaq does have strong opinions when it comes to basketball. One of his primary targets, for quite a while, had been Rudy Gobert. It was back in 2022 when the former player indicated the French star for being overrated by stating “Let me tell you something. Do you think I’m happy Rudy Gobert is making 205 (million)? You got these shooters shooting 22% making 30 million.” Two years later, he would bring up the money assessment again.

During a Q&A session with Complex, hosted by his son, Shaq was asked who he considered to be the worst NBA player of all time. Without thinking for long, Shaq replied Rudy Gobert. Why? Well, because “If you sign a contract for $250 million, show me $250 million. There’s a reason why I walk funny, why I can’t turn my neck and why I can’t do it. Because I played for about $120 million. You got guys like him who f*** the system over. They’re making all this money and they can’t f****** play. So, I don’t respect guys like that”. Yikes!

Rudy Gobert was certainly not going to stay silent and just let the criticism be given out about him. After all, he had already been put in a chokehold once by Draymond Green. Sure enough, Gobert soon responded to the criticism by writing, “It is sad to see someone that has accomplished as much as you did @SHAQ, both in sport and business, still be triggered by another man’s finances and accomplishments. I get the entertainment part but unlike other folks, you don’t need that stuff to stay relevant”. To be fair, Shaq’s remarks were not so much an analysis of Gobert’s finances as it was of raising the question of whether he deserved to earn that much. Well, after the recent Warriors game, Gobert may have finally proved his critic wrong.