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BREAKING: Shaquille O’Neal crossed the line with recent Nikola Jokic insult

Posted on April 3, 2025 - 1:25 am by

Shaq continues to discount Jokic, even after he made history versus Wolves

Joe Scarnici/GettyImages

I’ve always been a huge fan of Inside the NBA. Charles Barkley is a national treasure. Ernie Johnson might be the best studio TV host ever, and Kenny Smith has always been perfect in his role of setting up Barkley to make America laugh.

I love everything about the show, but I can’t say that I feel the same about Shaquille O’Neal, who continually bashes today’s superstars for no apparent reason.

While it’s natural for retired players to be biased and even a little defensive about the era they played in, O’Neal is one of the many popular TV analysts who has trouble giving any meaningful credit to current NBA players. There’s one guy in particular who Shaq has praised in the past, but who he has recently shown repeated disrespect towards. The guy? Nikola Jokic.

Last night, Jokic played one of the greatest basketball games that has ever been played. Jokic dropped a 61-point triple-double against a Minnesota Timberwolves team that was literally constructed to stop him, and oh yeah, he was playing without Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. 

During post game coverage of the incredible double overtime game, TNT’s Adam Lefkoe asked O’Neal a hypothetical question about how 2001 Shaq would do against 2025 Jokic. Here was his answer:

Seriously? Even after ten years in the league, evidently, it’s still too hard for Shaq to remember that Nikola Jokic is Serbian. Even if you push Shaq’s terrible world geography aside, his reasoning for why he’d “cook” Jokic is more than just flawed. It’s disrespectful. 

Shaq’s wouldn’t cook Jokic

While early 2000s Shaq was one of the most dominant forces the league has ever seen, he would definitely struggle in today’s league. Shaq wouldn’t be able to defend high pick and rolls in space, or cover the necessary ground against guys like Jokic, Karl Anthony Towns, or Anthony Davis who are elite at spreading the floor. 

And yes, while there’s probably not anybody in the league who could stop 2001 Shaq on offense, his argument conveniently limits Jokic to being “a pick-and-pop three-point shooter”. While most basketball fans with eyes know that Jokic is an unstoppable offensive hub who controls essentially everything on the court, O’Neal still tried to minimize the potential difficulties that would come from guarding him, and ultimately his analysis was about as lazy as his offseason training during his career.

The main problem isn’t that Shaq doesn’t respect Joker, it’s that he’s scared. Once Jokic went on his legendary 2023 playoff run, and then followed it up with last year’s MVP, Jokic has started to enter into some elite discussions when the greatest players of all time are being discussed. 

Jokic is one of nine players in NBA history with at least three MVPs. O’Neal, who is nervously looking over his shoulder, has one. 

Repeated Disrespect

Unfortunately,  this isn’t the first time Shaq has thrown shade at Jokic. Last year, TNT announced the winner of the 2024 MVP Trophy on live TV. Right after Barkley announced that Jokic took home the award, O’Neal, who had previously been advocating for Shai Gilgeous Alexander to win, got angry about the results, and made it about himself.

Not only is Jokic already a better offensive player than Shaq ever was, but he’s also more mature at a much younger age. While Jokic couldn’t care less about individual awards, O’Neal is still stuck complaining about losing the MVP race to Steve Nash. Twice.

After a historically dominant game where Jokic hit rainbow jumpers and dished out no-look passes that 2001 O’Neal couldn’t have executed in his wildest dreams, a jealous Shaq responded with salty trash talk that reeked of insecurity. He may act tough, but deep down, he’s worried that one day the Joker will be remembered as more dominant than the Big Diesel ever was.