Shaquille O’Neal is the last person who would hold back his true thoughts to escape an uncomfortable situation. The Big Aristotle has always been honest on camera and off camera as well, a quality that has made him lovable to so many people in the NBA world. However, his recent conversation with his friend and female co-host on The Big Podcast could stir up some controversy amid raging debates in sports circles regarding Deion Sanders’ inflammatory ‘single mom’ comments. Incidentally, Shaq vehemently agreed with the star NCAA coach who included an odd factor in his recruitment policy. However, the Los Angeles Lakers legend had to eat his own words a while later and provide a disclaimer.

Colorado Coach Deion Sanders ruffled quite a few feathers when he gave an extremely bold statement on his recruitment policies. Although the statement was criticized by many, Shaq decided to agree while giving reasons for his support of Sanders’ statement.

It all started when Deion Sanders revealed some unprecedented ways of recruiting players for his football team. According to the two-time Super Bowl champion, he looks for Quarterbacks who come from a two-parent household and are smart. Whereas for defensive linemen, Sanders looks for kids from “Single mother households” who are on “free lunch“, implying kids who are facing a lot of hardships in their lives.

Shaquille O’Neal provides a disclaimer after agreeing with Sanders’ ‘Single Mom’ remarks

While Nischelle Turner, who comes from a single mother household herself, wasn’t really happy with Sanders’ words, her Lakers legend co-host didn’t seem to have any issues with the argument. According to Shaq, there was “nothing wrong” with that statement. Hence, a heated argument ensued between the duo. 

Turner argued that it wasn’t a good thing to influence the recruitment policies based on these superficial factors that might be discriminatory to certain kids without any fault of their own. After supporting Sanders’ comments on the basis of facts and statistics, Shaq agreed that he didn’t really like these conversations and that his worth as a man doesn’t qualify him to speak on these issues.

Shaq said, “But the reason why I don’t like getting these conversations. Yeah, I’m Shaq and I got 30-40 Million[Dollars], but who am I to tell you that you’re wrong with your thought process?“

He further added, “I don’t have that power. A lot of people think they have that power.. what difference does it make, that’s how that man thinks.” Meanwhile, Shaq also revealed that despite agreeing with Sanders’ argument, he didn’t like the veteran coach speaking “ebonically to non-ebonic people“.

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Although Shaq thinks criticizing Sanders in these conversations is pointless and unnecessary, there are many who think it is an important discussion to have. There was a lot of outrage due to Sanders’ comment as people had a very direct approach toward it.

Criticism of Deion Sanders’ comments

Many criticized Sanders for his statement as they felt the players’ backgrounds were off limits, and he doesn’t need to gather knowledge about it before recruiting them. Even Anthony Adams said that he wasn’t a fan of the approach of the coach because it would always be a sensitive and private part of an individual’s life.

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Do you agree with Shaq’s thoughts? Let us know in the comments.