Shaquille O’Neal is not the biggest fan of Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan, who he blasted Thursday night on national television during a segment on TNT’s Inside the NBA.
Shaq on DeAndre Jordan: ‘You put him in Milwaukee, you’ll never hear from him again.’
The Hall of Fame center is not overly high on the Clippers big man.
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“He plays for a good team,” O’Neal said. “You put him in Milwaukee, you’ll never hear from him again.”
Shaq and host Ernie Johnson revealed the bottom half of their Top 25 player rankings, and EJ ranked Jordan as the 13th best player in the league — ahead of Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins, who he ranked 15th. Shaq had Jordan ranked 23rd and Boogie 12th.
The crying face emoji-inducing exchange went like this:
SHAQ: “You got DeAndre over DeMarcus? Really?”
EJ: “Uh-huh. Yeah, I do.”
CHARLES BARKLEY: “Only because he should be higher.”
SHAQ: “Oh, stop it. He plays for a good team. You put him in Milwaukee, you’ll never hear from him again. Come on, Chuck, don’t even play me like that.”
Jordan is set to make his first career All-Star appearance with averages 12.5 points, 14 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks per game for a fourth place Clippers (30-17) team that has been without Blake Griffin much of the season.
Cousins was named an All-Star reserve for the third time this season after posting averages of 28 points, 10.2 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.4 blocks per game for his 10th place 18-27 Sacramento Kings team.
The Inside the NBA crew made these rankings in October, so there are probably a few decisions they’d like to have back, like Shaq’s ranking Carmelo Anthony as the NBA’s eleventh-best player over guys like Jimmy Butler, John Wall, Kyle Lowry, and Anthony Davis.
“You got Carmelo at 11 over Anthony Davis? That wouldn’t work now,” TNT analyst Kenny Smith joked. “I’ll tell you that, Shaq. I don’t know if you could make that trade.”
Around this time two years ago, Shaq thought the world of Jordan
The Clippers center was not selected as an All-Star starter in 2015, but O’Neal penciled him in as a reserve, while Chuck, Kenny, and EJ left Jordan off their lists.
”That’s pretty cool, that’s humbling,” Jordan said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “Shaq to me is one of the most dominant players who’s ever played the game. So for him to think about me in that light is pretty cool.”
If you go even further back, Shaq considered Jordan the best center in the league in 2012, though at the time, the compliment may have been a dig at Dwight Howard.
“I’m going on the record,” O’Neal said, per the L.A. Times, when Jordan averaged 8.8 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks. “Best center in the West right now is DeAndre Jordan. You heard it here first.”
It isn’t the first time Shaq’s taken a shot at an athletic big man.
In 2012, again on Inside the NBA, The Big Aristotle labeled then Lakers center Andrew Bynum the better center over Dwight Howard.
“Listen, Andrew Bynum is a true big man — back you down, jump hook,” Shaq said. “Dwight Howard has one or two moves on the block. His one move is the running jump hook, and the other move is the pick-and-roll (to alley-oop).”
A four-time NBA champion, 15-time All-Star and recent Hall of Fame inductee, O’Neal certainly reserves the right to pass judgment on any of the league’s centers. So Shaq’s entitled to his opinion just like the rest of us.
But the Big Fella also ranked Anthony Davis at No. 16 behind guys at similar positions like Boogie, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Blake Griffin. So maybe his ranking process is a bit compromised.
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