The Golden State Warriors have reached out to TNT and Turner Sports after JaVale McGee and Shaquille O’Neal had a Twitter exchange about the network’s coverage of the Warriors player, according to ESPN’s Marc Stein and Chris Haynes.
JaVale McGee-Shaquille O’Neal beef is so bad the Warriors reached out to TNT
Golden State is trying to mediate the situation, according to report.
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The team reportedly reached out to “express concern” at how the network has covered McGee over the past year, as McGee makes frequent appearances on O’Neal’s “Shaqtin’ a Fool” segment. On Thursday night, the network aired an entire “Doctor Strange” segment highlighting McGee’s various gaffes, which may have been the impetus for McGee lashing out at O’Neal on Twitter.
McGee said the constant coverage has hurt his professional reputation, and Warriors teammate Kevin Durant and head coach Steve Kerr defended him while echoing those same sentiments.
“Shaq was a shitty free throw shooter, he missed dunks. He airballed free throws. He couldn’t shoot outside the paint,” Durant told reporters after practice on Friday, according to the Bay Area News Group’s Anthony Slater. “He was bigger than everybody, didn’t have no skill. But he was bigger and stronger than everybody, and he’s still a great player, but you had your flaws too as a player.
“And you played on five or six teams, too, as a player. So it’s not like you were like this perfect center. You had your flaws, too.”
McGee had initially tweeted at O’Neal asking him to kindly remove his peanut emoji from his mouth. O’Neal responded by threatening to “smack the s**t” out of McGee while calling him a “bumass” in several tweets.
O’Neal also tweeted at Durant, telling him to stay out of this.
That the Warriors had to step in and help legislate this story shows that McGee is seriously frustrated by the constant negative coverage, which he has been painted with by TNT and O’Neal for years. It also probably shows how much Golden State wants to avoid distracting stories like this, hoping to mediate a solution behind the scenes rather than distract from the basketball on the court.
