The lasted chapter in the beef between Shaquille O’Neal and JaVale McGee went down this week. Shaq took a cheap shot at McGee on Inside the NBA, Kevin Durant fired back that the Hall of Famer “didn’t have no skills.” Next thing you know, the Warriors spoke to TNT about the way Shaq discusses their big man, and O’Neal came back telling Durant to mind his business and that McGee is a “bum.”
The whole thing is so absurd, but apparently, we have reached something of a resolution. According to The Undefeated, the beef is over, because Shaq’s mom told him to knock it off.
“No,” O’Neal said. “My mama. Just say Shaq’s mom called him, told him, ‘Stop this silliness. Leave him alone.’ So that’s the end of the beef. You won’t be hearing about it from my side anymore. Mama has spoken.”
Said Lucille O’Neal earlier Saturday evening from her Orlando, Florida, home, “It’s not funny anymore, seeing the things they’re saying to each other. They need to squash this and move on.”
Shaq’s mom is 100 percent correct that things between the two are really nasty and the pair would be best served to move on. But while O’Neal’s mother wants resolution through the two burying the hatchet, McGee’s mother, Pamela, thinks that Shaq needs to be reprimanded for his actions in a big way.
“He cyberbullied my son,” Pamela McGee said in an emotional, 30-minute conversation. “Totally inappropriate. Shaquille needs to lose his job or be suspended. The NBA needs to make a stand.”
…
“And, besides, what 45-year-old man will say, I’m going to [slap the s–] out of a current player? He belittles, he berates Dwight Howard. He belittles, he berates [Kendrick] Perkins. But he sits in a glass house. And when people throw back stones, it’s an issue. No. He has to be held accountable.”
It’s no surprise that Pamela is reacting this way – the constant teasing that JaVale faces from Shaq would be tough for any mother to watch. She also makes a point that Shaq can sometimes be a little too eager to pick on people. Even if you want to argue that Shaq is a goofball who is just busting players’ chops (which plenty of people will probably disagree with), the beef between himself and McGee has gotten to be way too much.
(Via The Undefeated)
