It doesn’t matter how big of a star you are. If someone is going to carve out time in their schedule for you to do an interview, it is generally frowned upon to insult them to their face.
Manners and decorum didn’t stop Shaquille O’Neal on Thursday night though. The Hall of Famer and Inside the NBA panelist wanted to make sure Donovan Mitchell knew he wasn’t good enough to win a title. If the big man’s goal was to get the Utah Jazz star to react, he came up empty.
“Aight,” Mitchell said in response. He followed that up by making it clear he wasn’t going to say anything else. Kenny Smith tried to smooth things over by explaining the context of the earlier conversation to Mitchell. It didn’t seem to change anything.
Social media predictably ripped Shaq for the “question”.
After the interview, Eric Walden of the Salt Lake Tribune asked Mitchell and his teammate Mike Conley made of Shaq’s comments.
Donovan Mitchell is already a superstar. He has already proven that he can carry the Utah Jazz on his back. Does Shaquille O’Neal not remember the battles between Mitchell and Denver’s Jamal Murray in the first round of the playoffs last year? The Jazz losing that series had nothing to do with Mitchell not doing enough.
Inside the NBA along with College GameDay are often put on a pedestal as head and shoulders above other pregame shows on television. Shaq is part of the reason fans are so loyal to the TNT show, and the candid conversations about everything happening in the NBA – good and bad – is its foundation. Still, sometimes Shaq and the crew have their missteps. This was undeniably one of them.
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