Nikola Jokic has never been shy about defending EuroLeague basketball. Late last year, after his countryman Zeljko Obradovic’s stunning resignation from Partizan made headlines, Jokic said that Partizan and Red Star Belgrade “deserve” their place in Europe’s top competition because of the passion both clubs bring to the city and the sport. Now the reigning three-time MVP has an unlikely co-sign from NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal who has spent his career on the other side of that argument.

O’Neal, in Lithuania this week as a NordVPN ambassador, gave his take when asked to compare the two leagues.

“I know the European game is a little bit better than the NBA game,” O’Neal said at a press conference in Vilnius. “I know I’m gonna get a lot of flak for saying that, but guys over there, everybody plays hard.”

Shaquille O’Neal came to watch Zalgiris host Olympiacos in EuroLeague action at Zalgirio Arena, only the second European game he’s attended in person. He explained what separates the two leagues in his eyes. “Guys over there, everybody plays hard all 36 games,” he said, before turning the comparison back on his own league. “We got guys in the NBA, they kind of chill out until the All-Star game or the playoffs or whatever.”

That’s close to the exact case Jokic has been making for years. The Denver center, who came up through Serbia’s club system before the Nuggets drafted him, said he wishes every NBA player got a taste of what EuroLeague demands. “I wish every NBA player would go play six months in Europe just to see how much pressure there is,” Jokic has said. “You play Wednesday against Olympiacos in Greece, then you’re playing at home against Red Star or Partizan. If you have three losses in a row, it’s a big deal.”

Jokic’s example wasn’t random. Olympiacos, Red Star and Partizan are three of the most demanding environments in European basketball, with fan bases that treat a mid-season losing streak like a crisis rather than a blip on an 82-game schedule.

Jokic never played EuroLeague himself. He signed with Serbian club Mega Basket in 2012 and was drafted by Denver with the 41st pick three years later, skipping the top continental tier entirely.

But he grew up around the culture he described. He’s stayed close to it, following clubs like Olympiacos and Partizan and rooting for players like Nikola Milutinov even as his own career took off in the NBA.

Shaq spoke as an outsider getting his first real exposure to that atmosphere. That an American legend with four championships and O’Neal’s level of NBA credibility repeated what Jokic has argued in the past only strengthens the case both are making: whatever the NBA offers in talent, EuroLeague may still be teaching a harder lesson in urgency.