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

[Sealab2024]

No idea why my generations basketball players are so insecure. The previous generation wasn't really like that with them. Sure Bird and Jordan thought the 2000's era was soft but it's not like they constantly buried them like the Shaqs of the world do now. Bill Walton wasn't doing commentary tearing Shaq down. Isiah never went on TV to call Gilbert Arenas out. There was always some generation jockeying but it was generally good natured.

Shaq, Chuck, Tim Hardaway, whomever... It's over. You're old bro. Your time has past. Give up the ghost and enjoy what this generation is doing cause there's a whole lot to enjoy.

[Ainosterhaspie]

I am not huge NBA fan, I do not like the product much either, but its not what they complain about. I don't like NBA pacing, to me NBA timeout length just sucks all the fun out of the game, I wish people complained about that. Like why Euro timeouts are 3 time shorter, like why? Thats fixable, you send a message to NBA they are too greedy with this commercial time, hopefully they fix that. I don't get why Americans have no problem with real stuff like that, the fact its 2 and half hour broadcast where majority of time game is not even being played. I watch more in arena entertainment garbage than I watch Basketball than I watch NBA game, but people rather complain about 3 point shooting... I don't known man, this is NFL nation, where game of stoppage time is acceptable I guess, so thats not problem over there apparently, they rather complain about 3s... I myself when I turn the game, I just wish I watched the game as much as possible, not so MC doing baby races and tic tac toe games during a freaking time out. Basketball time out suppose to be 60 seconds long.

This is a fair criticism, but there is a positive tradeoff in having longer pauses. It allows the players to play with more intensity than if they didn't get those longer rest moments. Reduce that and you end up with more stretches of game play where everything slows down as guys find a way to rest during active play.

Football doesn't have this issue with the running clock, but then players find ways to stretch out of play moments and fake injury so they can rest a bit

[Xatticus]

Silly thread. He is giving you his opinions. You don't like it, so you start a thread ascribing negative motives to steer the conversation where you want to.

Why do you hate your children?

The game has changed. He isn't obligated to appreciate those changes. You are free to disagree with his opinions, but you should argue the merits of those opinions instead of insinuating that he is a miserable curmudgeon for not sharing your views.

[benson13]

I think it’s a combination of Shaq’s ego, competitiveness, and 90s rap. How did Shaq celebrate winning his 4th championship? “Kobe, tell me how my ass taste.”

Well if we're being honest, he did that after Kobe failed to win against Boston in 2008, but I'd say celebrating someone else's failure is even more petty.

Some of what he said is true, some wasn't.

A lot of it is Shaq's inability to get a coherent thought out. He just sort of defaults to **** talk when he's asked to say something of actual substance.

[DwayneSchintzus]

the primary driver of shaq's comments is to soothe his own ego. he doesn't "analyze" anything.

ultimately, he just makes himself look dumb and insecure.

its been that way from the beginning.

[bisme37]

Silly thread. He is giving you his opinions. You don't like it, so you start a thread ascribing negative motives to steer the conversation where you want to.

Why do you hate your children?

The game has changed. He isn't obligated to appreciate those changes. You are free to disagree with his opinions, but you should argue the merits of those opinions instead of insinuating that he is a miserable curmudgeon for not sharing your views.

I've been considering your post for a few minutes and can't really come up with a way to argue the merits of stuff like “I used to hate Luka until I seen him play," or “A lot of these mother******s can’t play and they know it. In any era they can’t f*****g play.”

It's not even that I disagree with his takes as much as I don't even understand them and don't get the anger. So that's what I posted about. Trying to come up with intelligent counter-arguments to random nonsense is fairly impossible. (I also don't see where I applied negative motives to anything but whatever. Wondering if you read the first little bit of the OP and then jumped to a conclusion.)

[Harry Palmer]

He’s basically an enormous teen, in good ways and bad.

[tsherkin]

He’s basically an enormous teen, in good ways and bad.

A succinct way of putting it.

Shaq is petty and he's short-sighted, doesn't want to change his opinion, nor does he want to put in the work to become informed. He just wants to shoot his mouth off about anything and never be called on it. Doesn't handle feeling threatened (in reputation) very well at all. He's also a bully.

And yet simultaneously, he is also a pretty jovial guy, very nice away from basketball. Pretty good to his fans, at least from my personal experiences and everyone I know who has met him. Finds ways to have fun basically all the time. He preserves a certain enthusiasm for life most of the time, right?

[threethehardway]

.

[Wingy]

Man known to dump human waste on teammates is mad, and mean spirited in discussions. Color me unsurprised.

[Ainosterhaspie]

Silly thread. He is giving you his opinions. You don't like it, so you start a thread ascribing negative motives to steer the conversation where you want to.

Why do you hate your children?

The game has changed. He isn't obligated to appreciate those changes. You are free to disagree with his opinions, but you should argue the merits of those opinions instead of insinuating that he is a miserable curmudgeon for not sharing your views.

But some people are miserable curmudgeons with negative motives behind things they say, so it's not at all outlandish to examine whether that might be what is behind a statement especially if the statement is only loosely tethered to reality. And when the credibility of a claim basically comes down to "a legend said it so it must be true", looking at the motives the legend may have to twist things is fair game.

Sure in a more academic sense, the statement stands or fails based on its own merit not that of the speaker, but that's never really the standard with a guy like Shaq talking the sport he once reigned over.

[jokeboy86]

I think it’s a combination of Shaq’s ego, competitiveness, and 90s rap. How did Shaq celebrate winning his 4th championship? “Kobe, tell me how my ass taste.”

Well if we're being honest, he did that after Kobe failed to win against Boston in 2008, but I'd say celebrating someone else's failure is even more petty.

Some of what he said is true, some wasn't.


A lot of it is Shaq's inability to get a coherent thought out. He just sort of defaults to **** talk when he's asked to say something of actual substance.

Now in Shaq's defense I understood why he may have still wanted to take a shot at Kobe even after publicly squashing their beef a few years earlier. What Kobe did in Colorado was one of the most snake-iest, shady things you could do.

[og15]

Here's a different take from some older players some years back:

Watch on YouTube

Bird:
"I like the game now, I think they've cleaned it up as far as the grabbing and holding and cheap shots"

"We wouldn't even guard guys beyond the 3PT line, we would stay way underneath and go under every pick" - Note that when people say this, some people react like they are making it up

"I can remember Danny (Ainge) talking about using it back then, he thought, you could shoot 35, 36% from 3 and better than if you shot 50% from the 2's" - Yes, everyone wasn't oblivious to this reality

[Sixers in 4]

Inside you is selling you a product what do you expect them to say. The game sucks the game was much better in the 90's but tune in anyways.

You do realize if they said that they wouldn't be on in the first place

[Marvin Martian]

Where is Adam Silver? He does nothing and sit back watching the sport media talk down on his product.

If he can ban Kyrie for posting a link, he can definitely shut down inside the NBA