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Shaq on Kevin Durant and today's NBA superstars: 'The league is soft and these guys are sensitive, period'

ben rohrbach
Senior NBA writer
At least Shaquille O'Neal was cordial to Stephen Curry. (Getty Images)
At least Shaquille O’Neal was cordial to Stephen Curry. (Getty Images)

The war between “Inside the NBA” and the league’s superstars continues.

In the latest bout between current All-Stars and their predecessors turned NBA on TNT broadcasters, Shaquille O’Neal added insult to Kevin Durant’s left knee injury, doubling down on his “mind yo business this ain’t for you” tweet at the Golden State Warriors forward during the JaVale McGee fiasco.

Ben Golliver of SI.com’s The Crossover blog caught up with O’Neal prior to Thursday’s edition of “Inside the NBA,” and here’s what the Pro Basketball Hall of Famer had to add about Durant:

“KD doesn’t have G–14 Classification,” O’Neal told The Crossover, referring to his oft-mentioned “unwritten” designation that applies to players who have won titles. “He can’t talk to me like that. He may think he does, and he’s sticking up for his teammate. He’s a great player, but you ain’t in the club yet. You’re on the outside in line with [Charles] Barkley, [Karl] Malone and [John] Stockton. You’re not in the club with me and those [championship] guys. That’s why I tweeted him, ‘Mind ya business.’”

[…]

“LeBron has a lot of clearance because he’s won championships,” O’Neal said. “But when a guy who hasn’t won championships makes comments, you say, ‘How do you know?’ … [Durant] was just trying to stick up for his teammate. If you read into what he said, none of his s— made sense. Well, actually some of it made sense. He said I was strong and I bullied people. Of course, that’s exactly what I did. I’m not going to go shoot jumpers and do all of that.

“Just put it this way: The league is soft and these guys are sensitive, period. I was sensitive [as a player] too but I never went back at [older players]. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain never said s— to [support] me. Did I cry about It? No. Kareem said in the paper one time, when they asked him, ‘Shaq is doing great, he has numbers similar to yours, what do you think?’ His response was, ‘Well, he hasn’t won a championship yet.’ I could have gone back at him, but I didn’t. I sucked it up like a real man and was like, ‘OK, watch this.’ A lot of guys, these days, when you say anything about them they start whimpering and crying.”

This “league is soft” business is a favorite narrative from the NBA on TNT crew. Charles Barkley, who also suggested Durant tried to “cheat” his way to a title by joining the Warriors, called Golden State’s style of play “girly basketball” in December, and then followed the next week by describing LeBron James as “whiny” in the wake of the Cleveland Cavaliers star’s plea for “another f***ing playmaker.”

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That wasn’t the first time Barkley ripped the Warriors or James — a series of jabs that have in one way or another publicly irked every NBA MVP but Derrick Rose since 2009. (Don’t worry: Barkley has also called Rose “stupid” and “disrespectful” in recent years.) This also led to a spat with Dwyane Wade, who praised LeBron for firing back at Barkley before the TNT analyst doubled down on the ex-Miami Heat teammates, suggesting “any time you say something about young guys they take it personally.”

Clearly, there is a disconnect between the league’s most high-profile players and TV personalities. This dichotomy makes for some quality entertainment, but there’s a tipping point where it spills over into the absurd, and that seemed to be reached during Shaq’s recent Twitter beef with McGee. One spewed some racially charged insults, and the other threatened assault. All of this led to Durant and Warriors coach Steve Kerr coming to McGee’s defense, and Golden State expressing concern to Turner Sports.

“Shaq was a sh**** free throw shooter, he missed dunks, he airballed free throws, he couldn’t shoot outside the paint,” Durant said last month. “He was bigger than everyone, didn’t have no skill, bigger and stronger than everyone. Still a great player, but you had your flaws as a player and you played on five or six teams, too. So it’s not like he’s just some perfect center. You had your flaws, too. I didn’t know cops could go on Twitter and threaten civilians like that. I’m glad JaVale challenged him.”

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Shaq didn’t seem to care then:

And his latest comments to Golliver suggest he’s still not backing down.

In the SI.com interview, Shaq also criticized Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban’s oversensitivity in demanding TNT partner Bleacher Report take down a tweet poking fun at a Dirk Nowitzki airball. He likened his own “Shaqtin’ A Fool” blooper segment — the root of O’Neal’s wars with McGee, Durant, Kerr and the Warriors — to “Benny Hill,” “Laurel and Hardy” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”

“Just laughing to relieve stress,” added Shaq. “I guess some guys take themselves too seriously. You can tell it’s funny because when these guys commit these acts, all you have to do is watch the bench [laughing]. It’s not me picking on people. It’s funny. Sports bloopers have been around for a long, long time. We’re going to continue to do it no matter who cries.”

So, stay tuned, because it doesn’t seem like today’s superstars are through counterpunching, either.

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!