Shaquille O’Neal hates the “earthlings”. Wondering what the Big Man means by this? Well, he is getting tired of his words being bent a certain way for people to run with their agendas. Recently, Shaq claimed in favor of the Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry, stating that Steph’s name should be put into the greatest conversations now.

The not-so-bold claim, however, soon brought Shaq in the middle of a discussion where not only his comment was being pulled apart, but also the Big Man’s legacy as a center was questioned. Talking about the ongoing debate in the NBA world, Shaq had a strongly worded response for Chris “Mad Dog” Russo.

Shaquille O’Neal takes no shade, hits back at Mad Dog

On a recent episode of First Take, Mad Dog said that Shaq is among the top 5 best centers of all time, but he deserves the 5th spot on the list. The likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, and Wilt Chamberlain were mentioned ahead of Shaq on the list. Although Stephen A. Smith disagreed with the list immediately, Mad Dog didn’t budge. Little did Shaq know that his rallying behind Curry for a highly deserved honor would land his legacy under scrutiny.

When the 4x NBA champion was asked about it on the new episode of his The Big Podcast, he said, “I will smack the sh*t out of that dude”. The message is clear from Shaq. For him, he has put in enough work that his name deserves some respect. Even Stephen A. was fuming with the wild claim from Russo.

He said on the show, “Who’s the four ahead of Shaquille O’Neal? Have you lost your damn mind?” The TV veteran accepted that Kareem can be put ahead of Shaq, but Chamberlain is where he drew the line. Shaq on the other hand believes that putting him at #3 would be a fair take.

Shaq said, “I was going to boastfully and arrogantly say I’m the most dominant center ever. I don’t ever wanna hear another name again”. As for his #3 ranking, he considers Kareem an all-time great and puts himself behind Chamberlain only because the 2x NBA champion has more points than him. However, the 50-year-old went on to double down on his threats for Russo.

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When his co-host Adam Lefkoe asked Shaq what would he say or do to Russo about his comments, Shaq said, “It’d be just a smack”. “Anything comes out of his mouth it’d be a [hints at a smack]”, Shaq added. The Big Man showed his humble side by putting himself up at #2 behind two veterans. However, giving him the 5th spot sounds like a bad idea.

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