Shaquille O’Neal has vowed, in the future, to lay off the antics when it comes to Warriors center JaVale McGee, whose history of on-court missteps has provided fertile ground for material on O’Neal’s ‘Shaqtin’ a Fool’ television segment.The whole thing got strange when
Gordon Hayward Jerseys the two large men found themselves in a Twitter beef that wound up drawing in the Warriors, forward Kevin Durant and even McGee’s mother.This is not exactly new for O’Neal. He has a long history of criticizing the big men who followed in his late-90s/early-2000s
NBA Jerseys wake, most notably Dwight Howard. In a 2009 interview with Sporting News, O’Neal ripped Howard — then with Orlando, the same team Shaq played for to start his career — for essentially following in his footsteps, right down to assuming his "Superman" identity. “Everything Dwight
Los Angeles Lakers Jerseys Howard is doing, I already did before him,” O’Neal said.When O’Neal was talking about those days recently, he pointed out that his goal in needling the big men who came after him was to motivate them, to get them
Devin Booker Jerseys to push themselves. “I didn’t poke fun at (Howard),” he told Sporting News last week. “I was just trying to ruffle his feathers. Get him upset. I did that because it was what was done to me.”So it is with McGee, one in a long succession of big men who have not lived up to their potential in O’Neal’s eyes.O’Neal told a story from his playing days to illuminate how he
Cleveland Cavaliers Jerseys was motivated by those who came before him. In March 2000, O’Neal racked up 61 points in a dominating performance against the Clippers. It was O’Neal’s fourth season with the Lakers, but the team had not yet won a championship with him aboard. Kareem
Stephen Curry Jerseys Abdul-Jabbar, who was working for the Clippers and sitting courtside, made it a point to avert his eyes every time O’Neal came down the floor. O’Neal kept looking at Abdul-Jabbar, but he could not make eye contact. The message from Abdul-Jabbar to O’Neal was clear:
Carmelo Anthony Jerseys You have not earned my respect yet.“Every time we came down he would go like that,” O’Neal said, moving his head downward. “When I was averaging all those points in LA, they were saying, ‘Hey Kareem, Shaq is boom-boom-boom.’ Kareem said, ‘He hasn’t won a
Dwyane Wade Jerseys championship yet, he’s not that good.’ Did I cry about it? No.”O’Neal and the Lakers won their first of three championships that spring.“I just figure if it worked for me, it would work for other people,” O’Neal said. “It’s just my way of testing people
Kevin Durant Jerseys out. A lot of people know and understand, I don’t waste time taking personal shots. There is a motive to everything I do and everything I say. I am giving guys the blueprint of what it takes to be the next dominant big man, and
Zach Collins Jerseys they can either take the information or not. If they don’t want to take the information, it’s not on me.”Howard, of course, had a much better shot at being the next O’Neal than McGee ever did. But the principle is the same. Both players could
Lauri Markkanen Jerseys have been better than they are.“At the end of the day, if they don’t get one of these, it’s not my problem,” O’Neal said, holding up a championship ring. “It may seem like I am poking fun at these guys, but if you really look
Kevin Durant Jerseys into the message, if you decrypt what I am saying, I am just giving them the answers to the test.”
BOSTON — Deron Williams was in the left corner when he took a crossing pass from LeBron James, double covered near the top of the
Chicago Bulls Jerseys key. Williams was all alone and lined up a 3-point shot that would have put Cleveland ahead in the final seconds at TD Garden. Williams has made 44.4 percent of his 3s from the corner this year.“I thought it was good,” Williams said. “Felt good.
Paul Millsap Jerseys Looked good.”It wasn’t. The ball caromed off the rim and backboard, and the Cavs lost.Still, the fact that, in his Cleveland debut, James and the Cavs were comfortable having Williams take the last shot is indicative of how the team plans to use their new
C.J. McCollum Jerseys point guard going forward. Williams can be part of this team’s closing lineup, an added ballhandler to go with Kyrie Irving. He will be called upon to take big shots. He played 24 minutes on Wednesday, which is about the amount of run he can
Chris Paul Jerseys expect with the Cavs.For Williams, probably the most important aspect of his next few months with the Cavs is the ability to show, at age 32 and after a career packed with promising successes and puzzling disappointment, that he’s not done yet.“I think this is
Cheap NBA Jerseys an opportunity to show that I can still contribute to a winning team,” Williams said. “I don’t doubt myself that I can still play ... Here, there is the possibility of winning a championship. Competing, night in and night out. That was the most important
Custom NBA Jerseys thing.”Williams was not bad this season in Dallas, averaging 13.1 points and 6.9 assists. His shooting was not great (43.0 percent from the field and 34.8 percent from the 3-point line), but he had a 40.1 assist percentage, his highest in five years. He is
Oklahoma City Thunder Jerseys a poor finisher at the rim, which drags down his shooting numbers, but he is an excellent midrange shooter, making 47.0 percent of his 2-pointers from beyond 16 feet, according to basketball-reference.com.
Some congratulations are in order for Russell Westbrook and his wife, Nina.The Thunder
Minnesota Timberwolves Jerseys star took to Instagram on Wednesday to announce the pair are expecting their first child together.The adorable photo has Russell kissing Nina's belly and is simply captioned with the expected due date — May 2017.The baby announcement is the icing on the cake for Westbrook's
Kyrie Irving Jerseys fantastic year thus far. The MVP candidate has recorded 30 triple doubles so far this season and is averaging a career-high 31.2 points per game.
The Hawks plan to sign veteran guard Jose Calderon as early as Saturday, ESPN.com reported, citing unidentified league sources.Atlanta would
Jayson Tatum Jerseys be the veteran point guard's third team — at least on paper — this week.He agreed to a buyout with the Lakers and had agreed with the Warriors to join the defending Western Conference champions, who abandoned that deal when Kevin Durant suffered a knee
Josh Jackson Jerseys injury.Golden State instead signed Matt Barnes, though it upheld its end of the agreement by signing Calderon and releasing him hours later. (According to NBA rules, a player must be waived by March 1 to be playoff-eligible with his next team.)According to ESPN's sources, the
Lebron James Jerseys Hawks targeted Calderon, 35, when his Warriors deal fell through. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that the deal is complicated by the fact that Calderon won't clear waivers until 5 p.m. ET Saturday.In his 12th season, Calderon appeared in 24 games for the Lakers and averaged
Emmanuel Mudiay Jerseys 3.3 points, 2.1 assists and 1.7 rebounds in 12.2 minutes, well below his career averages (9.7 ppg, 6.3 apg, 2.6 rpg, 28.3 min.)
JaVale McGee is sick and tired of...being the interviewee.So on Saturday following the Warriors playoff-clinching victory over the abysmal Brooklyn Nets, McGee
Anthony Davis Jerseys turned the tables on CSN sideline reporter Ros Gold-Onwude.Rosalyn pulls off the braid better, just for the record, JaVale.Anyway, after watching this, it's hard to see why Shaq and McGee don't get along. Maybe McGee can interview Shaq and try and clear the air?But on
Joel Embiid Jerseys a grander scale, McGee won't be able to practice his reporting skills any time soon, with Golden State poised to make another deep run in the NBA playoffs this season.
NEW YORK — Magic Johnson had a chance to run the Knicks starting around Christmas
Andrew Wiggins Jerseys in 2003, declined the Garden’s offer and instead put in a strong recommendation for his good friend, Isiah Thomas. Long before Phil Jackson ever thought he’d be running the Knicks, the Garden was always looking to make the big splash and took Magic’s advice. They
Boston Celtics Jerseys went after Thomas.So you can argue that Johnson already has a blemish on his record as a talent evaluator: Starting almost immediately in his new post, Thomas wheeled and dealed the Knicks into salary-cap purgatory for the next six seasons, setting the franchise back for
Golden State Warriors Jerseys years.OK, so cataclysmic mistakes are made, but that didn’t exactly stop Jeanie Buss from hiring Johnson as team president to make the Lakers champs again.So far, you have to like Magic’s approach: Call it “Losin’ Time.”As Thomas did in New York when he took over,
Stephen Curry Jerseys Johnson wasted no time making bold moves. The difference is that Thomas gambled on Stephon Marbury, trying to land his big chip for the future only two weeks on the job. Johnson went the smart route before the trade deadline by dealing off Lou Williams,
Ben Simmons Jerseys his most reliable offensive player, to the Rockets for Corey Brewer and a No. 1 draft pick this June.Without Williams, the Lakers will be able to accomplish a very important mission: They can tank the final two months by just rolling out their regulars, headed
San Antonio Spurs Jerseys by D’Angelo Russell, Brandon Ingram and Julius Randle.The young squad is likely to continue losing, ensuring one of the NBA’s three worst records. The last thing the Lakers want to do is win meaningless games, lose their top-three spot in the lottery and end up
Derrick Rose Jerseys giving away not just their first-round pick to the Sixers this June, but also their No. 1 pick in 2019 (to Orlando). They’re in no position to lose two more building blocks, so the best course of action is to lose. They won’t catch Brooklyn
Paul George Jerseys for the worst record, but they’ll do themselves good to have Phoenix move past them in the standings.“Our untouchables are our young talent right now,” Johnson said of his trio when he took over as president last week. “We’ve already let everybody know that. We
Milwaukee Bucks Jerseys want to hang on to our young talent. People have been calling for it, but we’ve been saying no.”
Kevin Durant was the victim of friendly fire Tuesday night as teammate Zaza Pachulia landed on the forward's knee. According to The Vertical, a late Tuesday
Elfrid Payton Jerseys night MRI didn't show much promise for Durant, and he's expected to be out the rest of the regular season — or even longer.As confirmation that the Warriors are at least somewhat worried, they've abandoned their pursuit of Jose Calderon, and instead will sign veteran
Klay Thompson Jerseys Matt Barnes. The 36-year-old forward previously played for Golden State from 2006-08.After news spread that Barnes was headed to the Warriors, he posted a message on Instagram saying this is one of the best days of his life.
For the 2015-2016 season, Stephen Curry had
Jimmy Butler Jerseys the most popular jersey on NBAStore.com. This announcement comes on the heels of Curry winning his second consecutive MVP award for a season filled with highlights of buzzer beaters, ankle-breaking crossovers, and half-court shots. Kobe Bryant had the second most popular jersey for his final
DeMarcus Cousins Jerseys season. Rookie Kristaps Porzingis captured the hearts of the Knickerbocker faithful and came in at #4.