Shaquille O’Neal has avidly supported his friend and colleague, Charles Barkley. But he disagrees with Barkley’s assessment of Caitlin Clark‘s WNBA transition.
Barkley made waves early this year when he called out the league for being “petty” towards Clark. His words eventually reached high-profile players like A’ja Wilson and even fellow rookie Angel Reese. Wilson took the high road when asked to comment at the time, but Reese seemingly called Barkley out.
The narrative that WNBA players are “jealous” of Caitlin has continued throughout the season. But Shaq isn’t quite buying it. Per Lindsay Schnell, here’s what he recently shared with USA TODAY:
“There’s envious jealousy. There’s professional jealousy,” O’Neal said. “Sure, there’s a lot of people who are professionally jealous. I am. I’m professionally jealous of a lot of people. I’m professionally jealous of Steph [Curry]. He makes $60 million. But hey, that’s life.”
“You gotta also understand that we’re not just going to give it to you because everybody else is giving it to you…Yeah, you’re great, but you ain’t that great yet. Calm down. We still got Diana Taurasi. We still got A’ja Wilson, if you’re gonna give [Caitlin] props make sure our girls that are dominating in this league get the same props.”
“Loudmouths like Chuck are talking about hating — it’s not hating…As good as Caitlin Clark is, we’ve had a lot of young ladies who have been doing good [before] and not getting props. People like props, and they want to feel good when you’re talking about [their league]…it’s not hating. Everybody has to wait their turn.”
