The McDonald’s All-America team was announced on Tuesday and one very prominent high schooler was missing from the list of names. Shareef O’Neal, the son of Shaq and a four-star Arizona commit, did not make the team. Normally, a snub for a high school All-America game wouldn’t garner much backlash, but when it’s the son of an NBA legend it makes national news.
Shaq, naturally, posted to social media noting his displeasure with his son not being on the team and other current and former NBA players, including LeBron James, also sent messages of support to O’Neal as well as messages condemning the McDonald’s All-American Game.
The backlash from those upset about O’Neal’s snub has led to some positing that they should form their own All-American Game, but the best reaction has come from Matt Barnes, who is taking out his anger on McDonald’s (and, in turn, his twin boys). Barnes posted a message to Instagram saying that he’s going to no longer allow his boys to eat McDonald’s chicken McNuggets due to O’Neal’s absence from the All-American roster.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BeC28bql6oX/
The #NoMoreNuggets really sends the message home and I hope more than anything that it trends. Barnes’ heart might be in the right place here, but I think this might be some misguided anger. I’m not sure a McNugget boycott is going to have a big impact on the inner workings and voting process of the high school All-America team as much as it will maybe bum out your local McDonald’s and, most of all, your kids.
Also, does this mean he’ll let his kids eat other McDonald’s items since he specifically notes the 6-piece McNuggets and he’s just sending a message with the nuggets, or do his kids only eat nuggets so boycotting those means boycotting McDonald’s. In any case, the sentiment is that he, like so many others, is mad and wants to do anything he can to make sure those running the game know that.
