The beef between Golden State Warriors center JaVale McGee and TNT analyst Shaquille O’Neal has been joined by one of McGee’s teammates, Kevin Durant.
McGee has long been a target of Shaq’s, specifically on his Shaqtin’ a Fool segment. Durant finally decided that he had heard enough and came to McGee’s aid.
Full Kevin Durant comments backing JaVale McGee, defending his reputation and ripping Shaq for his constant mocking pic.twitter.com/HV1aj5AiY1
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) February 24, 2017
The most-recent beef started after the Warriors’ victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday. O’Neal and the Inside the NBA crew put together a compilation of McGee’s many mistakes.
https://twitter.com/PrimeDebo/status/835130889352916992
McGee responded in a rather salty way, which you can see here.
In truth, Durant is not entirely wrong. Shaq had plenty of issues throughout his career and at times, it can seem out of place for him to be the guy making fun of people like McGee. It’s not unlike Charles Barkley’s criticism of super teams when he twice forced trades in apparent attempts to form super teams.
Still, these guys are entertainers. In a way, O’Neal and Barkley the commentators are different than the players. Now, their job is to entertain and if they find something that works, they have to stick with it until it doesn’t.
With that said, there’s nothing wrong with Durant defending his guy. He just shouldn’t expect to see anything change.
Between Shaq and McGee and Barkley’s never-ending criticism of Golden State, it’s safe to say that the Warriors and the Inside the NBA guys may not be on the best terms.