Shaq being disrespectful

[BobbyPortisEyes]

It's sad. I think he genuinely likes and respects Jokic. He was celebrating Jokic after last year's Finals and telling him that he's inducting him into the "big man alliance" and that he wants to hang out with his brothers. Even then you could sense the insecurity behind his behavior as if his blessing were somehow required for a big man to truly be great. Now that Jokic has 3 MVPs compared to Shaq's 1, it's simply become too much for his fragile ego.

[KayDee35]

Watch from 0:44 if you want to see the beginning of the conversation.

You don't have to be an expert in psychology, body language, or vocal cues to recognize that this is personal for Shaq. It's unprofessional, to say the least. But it's also quite sad that Shaq is holding on so tightly to his perceived past slights that he is willing to take the spotlight off the winner of a major award and put it on himself.

Shaq: "...I felt Shay Alexander deserved it because I've been I've been number two a lot when I played my ass off..."

Shaq: "...cuz again I I felt I was robbed two or three times right and I played my ass off, stat stuffer, won championships those years..."

Charles, "You know Shaq say he got robbed, I don't know if he got robbed..."
Shaq talks over Charles, "I got robbed. I was the baddest mofo in the league."
Ernie interjects, "Let's talk about now though."
Shaq, shaking his head, "No."
Charles, trying to get his words in, "with Steve (I assume he's talking about Nash) with Steve ...but but but... it doesn't best player, it goes to the guy who had the best regular season."
Shaq, "Well, you know what, don't name it most valuable player then, don't name it most valuable player then. It goes to the most valuable player player in the league. That was me!"

Watch on YouTube

[Quattro]

You guys are too sensitive.
Shaq didnt do anything wrong. He just said that Jokic is the best in the League, but with the great Thunder's season, he thinks that SGA deserves it.
Jokic and Shaq are buddies, he is just honest.

Btw, a lot of people think that SGA deserves it.
Does it makes them insecure too ?

I wonder how Shaq would have taken it if someone told him Nash deserved his MVP over him (and he did btw).

[PlatinumState]

Shaq's just pissed he got one mvp

[Ryoga Hibiki]

The good thing of TNT possibly losing the NBA rights is that we could get rid of Shaq on TV.
The guy is just bad at this.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

Again, you are projecting.

Projecting what? Shaq literally went off on how he was #2 so many times in MVP votes. And pulled a Kanye by in the middle of Jokic’s moment where it’s supposed to be all about his achievements, started the whole thing stating he didn’t think he deserved to win (what Kanye did to Taylor Swift back in the day).

Not sure what is being projected here.

Look, Shaq is a big baby and always butthurt, but i think in this case he was just being honest. you are looking too much into it, that is my opinion. Was the timing bad? yeah. But he wasn't making it about himself, that's all. So let's agree to disagree.

that's not the time nor the way to be honest.
there's a good chance many people in that video honestly thought that Shaq was an egotistical baby and a***ole but they didn't tell it to him. Why? Because it was not appropriate.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

Old players tend to never celebrate today's players achievements. it's a wierd thing.

Wasn't always the case

it's not like that even now.
Shaq is an exception.

[kingr]

I agree with Shaq about Shai. Maybe not the time to say it though.

[LeBronSpaghetti]

Looks like Shannon Sharpe agrees with OP:

https://youtu.be/He3vjFzCuH4?si=lAEWjpDQZjml7VM3

[TheGeneral99]

What a weird over emotional response to such a nothing burger or a clip.

Telling Jokic he doesn't think he was worthy of winning the award that they are interviewing him about immediately after announcing it does seem stupid. This man's still crying about the MVP Nash got over him and yet doesn't realize how it'd make someone feel during what is supposed to be THEIR moment.

Shaq made it about him and let's be real, he doesn't watch enough basketball to truly know who deserves what. His arguments of why Shai deserved it were some of the dumbest comments one can make but totally inline with who he is, and this is coming from a dude who loves Shai.

Shaq's hate for Nash is really dumb as well.

Nash took a 29-53 team and turned them into a 62-20 team, averaging 16 and 12 on nearly 50/40/90 shooting (50%, 43%, 89%), leading the charge for the best offense in the league by a mile, and revolutionizing how the game was played at the time. He was the Steph Curry of the league before Steph took the game to another level a decade later. Nash had a ridiculous 60.6 TS percentage that season, higher than Shaq. Anyone old enough here to have watched that Suns team knew how dominant Nash was that season.

Anyways, with respect to Jokic, I mean Shai had a legitimate argument, but Jokic led the Nuggets to a tie for the best record in the conference while nearly averaging a triple double on insane shooting splits. It's hard not to give it to Jokic, the dude is just flat out dominant and insanely durable, playing 79 games, more than most stars these days.

[Chuck Everett]

If Shai won and then won again next year, Shaq would be mad at him for having one more than Shaq. His issue is that when he got to the Lakers, the regular season wasn't important enough, simple as that.

The MVP is a regular season award.

[Diop]

He ruined the Lakers dynasty fighting with Kobe.

As a Kobe fanatic (apparently LOL), I have to say this was also Kobe's fault there's already a story on It and videos, Kobe wanting to be the top dog and what not, so to say It was all Shaq's fault for fighting with Kobe, not the case It went both ways probably even more on Kobe's side In that scenerio.

Big reason why Kareem and Magic were the better duo.
They found a way to coexist

[ThunderBolt]

I really hate the NBA culture of crapping on players every time they look human. Media guys like Cowherd have made careers by comparing talented players like Aaron Rogers and Durant and even Curry and criticizing them simply because they don't measure up to Tom Brady and Lebron James. Most of the general board loves to imitate this mentality of belittling stars every time they fall short of super hero expectations.

[TravisScott55]

I don't know if I'd say this is disrespectful.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

What a weird over emotional response to such a nothing burger or a clip.

Telling Jokic he doesn't think he was worthy of winning the award that they are interviewing him about immediately after announcing it does seem stupid. This man's still crying about the MVP Nash got over him and yet doesn't realize how it'd make someone feel during what is supposed to be THEIR moment.

Shaq made it about him and let's be real, he doesn't watch enough basketball to truly know who deserves what. His arguments of why Shai deserved it were some of the dumbest comments one can make but totally inline with who he is, and this is coming from a dude who loves Shai.

Shaq's hate for Nash is really dumb as well.

Nash took a 29-53 team and turned them into a 62-20 team, averaging 16 and 12 on nearly 50/40/90 shooting (50%, 43%, 89%), leading the charge for the best offense in the league by a mile, and revolutionizing how the game was played at the time. He was the Steph Curry of the league before Steph took the game to another level a decade later. Nash had a ridiculous 60.6 TS percentage that season, higher than Shaq. Anyone old enough here to have watched that Suns team knew how dominant Nash was that season.

Anyways, with respect to Jokic, I mean Shai had a legitimate argument, but Jokic led the Nuggets to a tie for the best record in the conference while nearly averaging a triple double on insane shooting splits. It's hard not to give it to Jokic, the dude is just flat out dominant and insanely durable, playing 79 games, more than most stars these days.

What is interesting is that in 05 Nash had VASTLY better playoffs than Shaq, it's not like voters have been proven wrong

[Calvin Klein]

Shaq being his old narcissistic self. I like him but that's obviously not the time to make such comments.

[Cubbies2120]

I don't know if I'd say this is disrespectful.

Of course it's disrespectful. The TNT had the privilege of interviewing Jokic after he was announced MVP and the first thing that clown did was tell him he didn't deserve MVP. Would he have said the same thing if Embiid had been announced MVP despite playing 39 games (and 40% of games played being against teams < 27 wins)? I'm sensing a tad bit of xenophobia/racism here...

The NBA getting off the TNT platform will be a great thing if we have such imbeciles - who are unable to control their impulses - being allowed to voice their opinions in such a way.

Reminded me of Kanye / Taylor Swift...

[bledredwine]

That was fairly stupid on Shaq’s behalf. It’s like Kanye presenting the award to Taylor Swift but less pronounced.

Edit: Just saw the post above mine


That all said, Shaq has good reason to feel he deserved more when Jokic already has three. He’s just not voicing that in the correct way.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

For people not understanding why so many are pissed at Shaq, you should watch what preceded that:

Watch on YouTube

[Sedale Threatt]

Shaq: "...cuz again I I felt I was robbed two or three times right and I played my ass off, stat stuffer, won championships those years..."

He was rarely less than great. He's still one of my favorite players of all time. But other than his early years when he couldn't help but be in good shape and his lone MVP season, when he was utterly dominant on both ends, he was pretty unprofessional when it came to effort and that sabotaged his MVP chances.

His low point came with the whole "heal on company time" quote when he waited until preseason to get toe surgery and came into camp before L.A.'s last three-peat championship at more than 400 pounds. (That is f'ing staggering.)

So as great as he was, he didn't really deserve any more MVPs than he got. His work ethic was his biggest weakness -- Phil used to jab him over it all the time, like how he ripped Kobe for being selfish -- followed closely by his ego and bully tendencies. (He admitted to the latter in the documentary series he did for HBO.)

Looking back I'm just glad we got three rings out of him and Kobe because holy sht, what a couple of personalities.