Shaquille O’Neal was single handedly one of the most dominant forces during his NBA career. From bullying opposing big men in the paint, breaking backboards to playing with some of the NBA’s greatest players, the four-time NBA champion enforced his will any chance he got.
While doing so, O’Neal accumulated a ton of money on the court for his play as well as off the court through endorsements, commercials, movies and music to name a few of his financial avenues. However, when it comes to some of today's players receiving astronomical contracts, O’Neal is not the biggest fan.
O’Neal spoke on his platform The Big Podcast and discussed his unhappiness toward players like the Jazz’s Rudy Gobert securing a contract worth $250 million.
“You think I’m happy Rudy Gobert’s making 250 [million]? … God damn right we get mad, we get petty,” O’Neal said on the podcast. “…I think it’s a little bit of truth in our criticism.”
O’Neal considers himself an all-time great and has the accolades to back it up. He is a 15-time NBA All-Star, three-time NBA Finals MVP, eight-time All-NBA First selection as well as member of both of the NBA’s 50th and 75th anniversary teams to name a few.
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This is not the first time O’Neal shared his thoughts toward Gobert. In April 2021, O’Neal appeared on The Rex Chapman Show and discussed his jealousy of lucrative modern NBA contracts. He admitted that he was jealous because he thought he needed to have “Michael-Jordan, superb-type numbers” to get contracts like Gobert’s.
“That's what it was in my era,” O’Neal said on the show last year. “…I bring up Rudy Gobert, people think I'm hating, it's not. He's a good big man; I'm used to dealing with great big men.”
While O'Neal may not have earned a big contract among the likes of Gobert, the NBA legend made his fair share of money on the hardwood and continues to make money away from the court today in numerous advertisements, commercials and community-building initiatives.
