Shaq Tells Kevin Durant He’s ‘Not In The Club’ With Championship Guys


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It is with a heavy heart that I must report that Shaquille O’Neal is at it again.

Remember when Shaq got into it with JaVale McGee of the Golden State Warriors? Then the moms got involved? Then Kevin Durant got involved? Then Shaq tweeted some stuff at Durant? Then we all thought we could move on with our lives because lord knows we all deserve a moment of peace from Shaq fighting with current NBA players because deep down he’s jealous of them because their careers are still active?

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Shaq fired back with some nonsense about how Durant shouldn’t talk because he hasn’t won a title.

“KD doesn’t have G–14 Classification,” O’Neal told The Crossover, referring to his oft-mentioned “unwritten” designation that applies to players who have won titles. “He can’t talk to me like that. He may think he does, and he’s sticking up for his teammate. He’s a great player, but you ain’t in the club yet. You’re on the outside in line with [Charles] Barkley, [Karl] Malone and [John] Stockton. You’re not in the club with me and those [championship] guys. That’s why I tweeted him, ‘Mind ya business.’”

OK, G-14 classified is not a thing Shaq made up. It’s not “his” designation. It’s from the 1998 movie Rush Hour. You also probably don’t have to capitalize it, as it’s not a real thing.

Pop culture knowledge is almost useless except for when an uncreative dude that has made a post-career living of making fun of people — poorly and lazily — is cribbing from the work of other people. The irony is G-14 classified means nothing in the movie. It’s a made-up thing designed to keep Chris Tucker happy on a crappy assignment, so it’s quite funny since not winning a title doesn’t mean anything in this context either.

O’Neal wasn’t done. He had more to say:

“Just put it this way: The league is soft and these guys are sensitive, period. I was sensitive [as a player] too but I never went back at [older players]. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain never said s— to [support] me. Did I cry about It? No. Kareem said in the paper one time, when they asked him, ‘Shaq is doing great, he has numbers similar to yours, what do you think?’ His response was, ‘Well, he hasn’t won a championship yet.’ I could have gone back at him, but I didn’t. I sucked it up like a real man and was like, ‘OK, watch this.’ A lot of guys, these days, when you say anything about them they start whimpering and crying.”

Shaq’s whole shtick is saying people suck and if the person doesn’t suck, then he’ll make fun of them if they don’t have any championships. Imagine thinking being named in the same breath as Karl Malone and John Stockton is an insult. Shaq is boring. He has nothing interesting to say about anything. But if it continuously opens the door for guys like McGee and Durant to own him publicly, then keep on going with it.

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