What is Shaquille O'Neal so mad about, and why is NBA coverage so mean spirited?

[SomeBunghole]

Why are you surprised? Look around you, the whole society is suddenly angry for no good reason so of course they want to see other angry people. They love angry politicians, angry sports analysts, angry video game reviewers on Youtube...

Everything has been cause for anger since around 2020.

[Jazz9]

I don't even understand why Inside the NBA is so popular.
The same old tired kind of "humor" (if you can even call it that), constant sh***ing on the game, zero analysis, hosts couldn't make it clearer they don't even watch the game they despise so much...

[bisme37]

This is from last week. Says he'd turn Jokic into Serbian Chicken. (Or actually he said Slovenian Chicken)

Spoiler:

Read on Twitter

[The Sebastian Express]

I'm not sure how someone who sat games and had issues playing because of a toe (this is in no way making fun of people who have toe or feet issues, those are genuinely serious) can try to go after Simmons and his legitimate back issues.

He would've gladly taken the type of money that players are earning today while he was dealing his with toe issue and also coming in out of shape nearly every season.

[Lefty20]

Well obviously Shaq would make Wemby and Chet quit. They're scrubs after all.

What I want to know is how Shaq thinks he would do against a fellow legendary big like Bol Bol.

[Onlytimewilltel]

This is what he's complaining about: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIC9PJ7NYlr

That is pretty funny though

[jbk1234]

The biggest guy to play the sport liked the sport more when you could be more physical. Of course, I don't remember him turning down free throws when the defender made contact but failed to alter the shot.

The reality is that he got away with an awful lot of blatant offensive fouls where he'd just drop his shoulder and knock a player in legal guarding position into the first row. Meanwhile Bill Walton would talk about how dominant Shaq was 48 minutes straight. I guess the audience was supposed to suspend disbelief and ignore what they were seeing. I turned off more than one playoff game during Shaq's prime.

[Jazz9]

This is from last week. Says he'd turn Jokic into Serbian Chicken.

Spoiler:

Read on Twitter

"Slavian" (lol) chicken, wherever he's from"

Jokić, a 3 time MVP in his tenth year, and this dude doesn't even know where's he's from...
"Slavian"....

[bisme37]

This is what he's complaining about: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIC9PJ7NYlr

Funny sequence but if he's getting all his NBA takes from Shaqtin nominees I suppose that's a solid explanation of why he has no idea what he's talking about. Honestly though, I think someone else picks out those plays and Shaq doesn't even watch the Shaqtin nominees until they air the segment on TV and he reads his script.

[Chuck Everett]

It's why I don't watch Inside until the playoffs.

[NYPiston]

Shaq is a piece of **** who clearly doesn't even watch basketball hardly at all. He regularly doesn't know who players are.

He's a **** analyst. Barkley is only a tiny bit better. The day they get off the air will be a good day. I turn them off or mute the TV when they come on.

They appeal to older fans who just want to live in the land of nostalgia. They suck.

Barkley is a million times better than Shaq as an analyst. A lot of that side **** is him playing to the audience whereas Shaq is just being himself with these absurd takes.

I used to think Shaq was good for the game with his humor keeping things lighthearted and fun but he's gotten increasingly bitter over the years to the point where he's insufferable, his analysis has always been consistently awful though but now he's not fun anymore so what's left? Just a bitter older man that sucks at NBA analysis.

[LarsV8]

Kenny and Ernie are okay, Barkley as the idiot character is okay. Shaq as the also idiot character but narcissistic as well is meh.

Tbh, the whole thing is tired at this point.

[HotelVitale]

What I don't understand is how does he still have a job as a TV analyst when he clearly sucks at this and hates on the sport?

No clue. Even when he was an active player it was always a joke about how he was such a mumbler that it was hard to ever understand what he was saying at end of gam interviews and they thought that would make for a good broadcast analyst?

Ratings, because dumb people like dumb. Dumb people want to hear dumb takes about dumb things, so Shaq continues getting 7 figure deals while people like Lowe lose their job. A network that made millions off of his buffoonery will continue to do so and give him the scraps it produces. It's such a bad look that I don't and won't ever care about Shaq or Chucks careers even. Why would I credit people who discredits the very product that puts food on his table? Ungrateful trash.

Best way to see it is that Inside the NBA crew are entertainers. the E! entertainment of basketball where they're more about "humor" (aka excuses for not even watching basketball), drama, and hot take discussions. I always have half times muted, I can get better basketball entertainment from the internet.

Yeah we all know by now that sports talk isn’t really about sports, the vast majority of it is fake arguments that resonate with audiences with a very thin veil of sports over top. For years it was arguments like star centered vs team oriented, coddled vs tough coaching, aggressive vs cautious scheming, etc, most of it is still new versions of that but there’s also more ‘X guy is a coward and b**ch’ thrown around.

People actually want to argue about their daily lives and how they approach the world etc, not about playbooks and defensive rotations and the history of pnr strategies. Everyone who knows anything about actual sports knows that most sports talk is intentionally ignoring or omitting what’s actually involved in a given game.

[chilluminati]

No clue. Even when he was an active player it was always a joke about how he was such a mumbler that it was hard to ever understand what he was saying at end of gam interviews and they thought that would make for a good broadcast analyst?

Ratings, because dumb people like dumb. Dumb people want to hear dumb takes about dumb things, so Shaq continues getting 7 figure deals while people like Lowe lose their job. A network that made millions off of his buffoonery will continue to do so and give him the scraps it produces. It's such a bad look that I don't and won't ever care about Shaq or Chucks careers even. Why would I credit people who discredits the very product that puts food on his table? Ungrateful trash.

Best way to see it is that Inside the NBA crew are entertainers. the E! entertainment of basketball where they're more about "humor" (aka excuses for not even watching basketball), drama, and hot take discussions. I always have half times muted, I can get better basketball entertainment from the internet.

People actually want to argue about their daily lives and how they approach the world etc, not about playbooks and defensive rotations and the history of pnr strategies. Everyone who knows anything about actual sports knows that most sports talk is intentionally ignoring or omitting what’s actually involved in a given game.

I get what you're saying, X's and O's aren't good for viewer retention. But this is Shaq we're talking about, who boasts around that he has no idea what's happening in the NBA because he hates it. You can't even begin to paint anything Shaq is a part of (that has to do with basketball) as content about life and/or world approach, I'm sorry.

[Fencer reregistered]

Shaq is a charismatic ****.

Charismatic **** are popular.

[B_Creamy]

Doesnt even try to hide the fact he hated Luka cause he was White lol

[D.Brasco]

Shaq is a charismatic ****.

Charismatic **** are popular.

He's not even charismatic though. He talks like someone who just got out of a coma.

People like Shaq most when he's a bouncing around as a giant clown or kid, but that makes for a terrible analyst, when they are expected to just sit down and talk sports analysis.

Shaq can be funny in his icy hot commercials, he's not funny trying to analyze basketball.

[Chanel Bomber]

To stay relevant.

If the NBA sucks today, the current players' accomplishments mean nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Meaning the last players who are really worth discussing are Shaq (or whoever is b****ing on the day) and the players he competed again.

In other words, "talk about me, talk about me, don't forget about me, I'm the best and you should talk about me, talk about me, talk about me".

The narcissism of some of these ex-NBA greats is frankly unbearable.

[HotelVitale]

Ratings, because dumb people like dumb. Dumb people want to hear dumb takes about dumb things, so Shaq continues getting 7 figure deals while people like Lowe lose their job. A network that made millions off of his buffoonery will continue to do so and give him the scraps it produces. It's such a bad look that I don't and won't ever care about Shaq or Chucks careers even. Why would I credit people who discredits the very product that puts food on his table? Ungrateful trash.

Best way to see it is that Inside the NBA crew are entertainers. the E! entertainment of basketball where they're more about "humor" (aka excuses for not even watching basketball), drama, and hot take discussions. I always have half times muted, I can get better basketball entertainment from the internet.

People actually want to argue about their daily lives and how they approach the world etc, not about playbooks and defensive rotations and the history of pnr strategies. Everyone who knows anything about actual sports knows that most sports talk is intentionally ignoring or omitting what’s actually involved in a given game.

I get what you're saying, X's and O's aren't good for viewer retention. But this is Shaq we're talking about, who boasts around that he has no idea what's happening in the NBA because he hates it. You can't even begin to paint anything Shaq is a part of (that has to do with basketball) as content about life and/or world approach, I'm sorry.

You misunderstood—I’m not saying the arguments are good or legit conversations about life, I’m saying that sport talk people will always find a way to reduce sports to usually pretty lame and vastly oversimplified binary oppositions. Shaq just does a version of that that’s more obvious and dumber—he says blatantly I didn’t watch it because I KNOW my version of the game centered on toughness and realness etc was right and the modern game is watered down fancy boy stuff. Or some modified version of that. People generally take the bait and 20 minutes go by before everyones tired of how stupid their argument was. Not excusing it, just explaining it.

[HotelVitale]

Shaq is a charismatic ****.

Charismatic **** are popular.

He's not even charismatic though. He talks like someone who just got out of a coma.

People like Shaq most when he's a bouncing around as a giant clown or kid, but that makes for a terrible analyst, when they are expected to just sit down and talk sports analysis.

Shaq can be funny in his icy hot commercials, he's not funny trying to analyze basketball.

Used to rant all the time about people calling prime Shaq funny or charismatic. In his prime his only ‘joke’ was ‘I’m going to ignore and disrespect whatever you asked me to mumble ‘I like hamburgers and pajamas and I read 20 books a day’.’ The funny part seemed to be not being able to converse, always felt sort of racist to me.