Anytime you say something along the lines of “this sub is the only place where X is believed” it should give you extreme pause.

The president is literally a felon. Kobe was a predator. People don’t care.

Shaq picks mostly on basketball players, however he is great with fans and the general public so that will always do great things for image.

It is mainstream and it doesn’t matter

Dude pooped in bucket so he could throw it on rookies.  And what can you do when he is also a 7 foot giant who’s the star player.  Literally 0 recourse.

The average person does not care. This goes for most controversial things about any entertainer/artist/creator you name it. Unless it’s some supervillain level stuff. Even then it’s like oh yeah they suck.. anyway.

Personally I think it’s healthy to separate consuming things and feeling like you need to care about or support the life/ideals of the person involved in creating it. Liking something created by a bad person does not mean you’re a bad person. To be frank I think it’s a waste of your own energy to be annoyed by other random people not disliking someone that neither of you will probably ever personally know.

36 year old lakers fan here. None of these Shaq personality quirks have ever been a secret. His feuds with Kareem and Bill Walton were reported on. His issues with Kobe were reported on. His lack of commitment in the offseason was reported on going back to Orlando when he was rapping. Him being petty? Well known. Him being sensitive? Well known. The only things that came out completely after his retirement was the Suns stories about the mouthpiece and choking out Giricek because those first came from Amin Elhassan on Truehoop in like 2015. All of this was known just that it was known Shaq was a great teammate, great tipper and just overall great celebrity to meet in public. People are complex. Shaq probably isn’t a great guy. Nobody cares. He’s funny and he was really great at basketball. That’s how this works.

Maybe he can be, but I’ve met him a half dozen times since he played here in Orlando and he’s always been stupid nice.

First time meeting him he gave me and this kid next to me his shoes after a Magic practice. 2nd time meeting him was the summer after he won his first title with the Lakers, he was back in town (Orlando) and let me and my stepdad check out the inside of his SUV outside of a Best Buy. Most recent time was meeting him the same week he got his jersey retired with the Magic, we were at the same restaurant a night or 2 before and we had a quick convo and he joked around with my kids for a bit on this way out.

Shaq is hands down one of the coolest and nicest celebs/athletes I’ve ever met and I’ll standby that for life.

Shaq is a brand which is only partially owned by Shaquille O’Neal. 

Why won’t the world conform to the views of the average redditor? Hmm, curious. Methinks Reddit moderators also need more real world power!

Honestly Shaq is consistently doing weird shit and people don’t seem to care, he is so famous that most of it doesn’t stick.

Did something just happen with Shaq where this is coming up again?

What’s funny is Kobe was just as much of a bully during his time in the league and it just doesn’t get talked about.

People don’t care unless you make them laugh

Team Chuckles

On the list of things that people should give a shit about, Shaq being insecure is pretty far down the fucking list.

Nobody cares that Shaq makes fun of other NBA players. Don’t watch the show if you can’t handle it 

Every week a new crybaby posts something like this.

“We” don’t see it that way. Just because there’s a vocal group of critics of inside the nba here doesn’t mean you can use the term “We” to refer to this sub and that opinion. There are many of us that aren’t pussies.

Nope.

One of the most dominant centers in NBA history is kinda a dick to weaker people.

That’s not shocking to people.

You don’t gotta be his friend and he was never paid to be nice.

In fact he was paid to be a dick to weaker people on the court.

Shaq has been retired for 15 years. Unless something comes out where he committed some heinous crime, nothing from his past is going to make it “mainstream”

Here are the worst things attributed to Shaquille O’Neal to teammates:

The Mouthpiece Incident (Lou Amundson): According to teammates, Shaq frequently tormented rookie Lou Amundson. The most infamous incident involved Shaq taking Amundson’s mouthguard, placing it in his own groin area/underwear, and then returning it to Amundson’s locker, who unknowingly used it during a game.

Defecation Pranks: Multiple reports indicate that Shaq took his pranks to extreme, and often unsanitary, levels, including stories of defecating in teammates’ shoes.

Using a Bucket as a Toilet: It has been reported that during his time with the Los Angeles Lakers, Shaq would use a bucket as a toilet in the locker room for a week at a time and, in one instance, dumped the contents on a rookie.

Physical Confrontation (Scott Skiles): During a practice in the 1993-94 season, an intense argument led to a physical altercation where Shaq put teammate Scott Skiles in a headlock, leaving him with a sore neck for weeks.

Targeting Teammates’ Gear: Jason Richardson recounted that Shaq would often take items from lockers, such as toothbrushes, and destroy them in unsanitary ways.

+4

Kobe was too

IMO, the mainstream believes NBA athletes are pampered athletes not worth the money they are being paid.

Most people would be on his side.

I don’t see what value people find in watching three NBA geezers filter today’s game through their envy and gatekeeping. There’s very little useful insight to draw from it. Not sure why the NBA gives access to a show whose main theme is that today’s NBA sucks. 

Kobe is a rapist.

Zion is fat.

I mean multiple things can be true about a person. He is a super sensitive bully with bad takes who gets his feelings hurt AND also is a very personable and likable guy, especially toward regular people and fans. I think casual consensus is always going to value the latter more

You’re 20 years late in your Shaq smear campaign, OP. 

I dunno, dude. We’re like 20 years out on this, and times truly have changed. 

If it were sexual assault, rape, etc, it’d be worth re-litigating. If his teammates came out and said it was worth re-litigating, it’d be worth re-litigating.

Some things are just worth leaving in the past

OP definitely got shoved into lockers as a kid

Broham, this may be a serious cry for help. Hit me up in the Dm if you think it maybe.

Brother I was a C-Webb stan as a kid but even I do not think he’s as good as Shaq is on TV. Not that Shaq is incredible, either

Barbecue chicken alert.

So he’s a celebrity, first of all. Let’s take that and understand he’s probably a little bit of a diva because of that. He is a little bit of a dick to players and does have a problem dishing it in. But he’s also been very open about why that is and how hard his dad was on him, he probably doesn’t ever feel like enough and it’s obvious with all his sponsorships, hustles and defensive nature.  It’s actually a little sad it shaped him that much.

Unfortunately he is a little bit of a hypocrite because he loves to talk trash too, mostly with his nba family or players. He also has a job where he’s kind of supposed to shit on people and with what we know about him he tends to downplay other people for self preservation. It doesn’t make it okay but it’s how he is.

I have never heard him be mean to fans or regular people though. In fact, I have heard a lot of stories about him being overly generous to people less fortunate than him both publicly and also locally. I lived in Orlando for many years and he’s done so much under the radar for people. I think his generosity for normal people overshadows his teasing of players in the general public. 

He cracks jokes at the expense of rich athletes. Oh the horror

It’s all over twitter, so it’s definitely outside this sub. He’s the main reason the TNT show went downhill.

Remember when Kobe passed and the man said it’s time to turn a new leaf and be a kind person.

He could just be both things….nice to some people and an absolute dick to tall Frenchman

You’re honestly a loser. Stop caring about other people not hating another person. Focus on actual fucking problems. Shaq is a bully, great. Plenty of far worse things you can waste your breath talking about.

In fact, I’m an idiot for even responding to this for that same very reason.

Shaq is notorious good for making cheap shoes that many can afford along with other philanthropist work, not including, but perhaps as generous, him pouring his shitty toilet water on teammates as a bully.

I only respect Ernie Johnson, and to a lesser extent Kenny Smith. The lot of them provide little in the way of basketball analysis, and it’s clear, despite having played the game at the highest of levels, they have zero understanding of the game.

it is mindblowing that nephews dont know that almost everyone who watched shaq hates shaq

DID YALL KNOW THAT JEFFREY DAHMER ATE A GUY

What would it take for being to see it the way we do?

Nah, the way YOU do.

Imagine being the person that 20+ years later feels like Shaq should pay for shitting in somebody’s shoes.. or stealing an other NBA’s player’s TV show idea.. or for saying your favorite player that he is not his MVP( in the middle of his MVP streak. That’s you.